E 

426 
W4 


MR,  WEBSTER'S 


SPEECHES 


AT 


* 

BUFFALO,   SYRACUSE,   AND  ALBANY 


MAY,    1851. 


BOSTON: 

1851. 
EASTBURN'S   PRESS 


LOAN  STACK 


The  President  of  the  United  States,  with  several  of  the  members 
of  his  Cabinet,  were  present  at  the  recent  celebration  of  the  comple 
tion  of  the  NEW  YORK  AND  ERIE  RAILROAD.  On  their  whole  route 
through  the  State  of  New  York,  they  were  received  with  great  en 
thusiasm,  arid  were  frequently  called  upon  to  address  assemblies  of 
the  people. 

The  HON.  DANIEL  WEBSTER,  the  Secretary  of  State,  was  one  of 
the  party.  The  greatest  anxiety  was  evinced,  at  every  point  of 
visitation,  to  see  and  hear  this  distinguished  statesman.  Citizens, 
without  distinction  of  party,  united  to  do  him  honor — to  invite  him  to 
their  meetings — and  to  solicit  him  to  address  them. 

The  Speeches  delivered  by  Mr.  WEBSTER,  in  the  course  of  the 
route,  under  such  solicitation;  were  numerous,  and  abounding  in 
characteristic  eloquence  and  patriotism.  It  has  been  thought  that 
some  of  them  should  be  preserved,  in  a  permanent  form,  and  printed 
and  distributed  for  general  perusal. 

The  Addresses  at  Buffalo,  Syracuse  and  Albany  have  been  select 
ed  for  that  purpose — and  are  now  presented  in  this  pamphlet.  The 
views  and  feelings  here  put  forth,  by  the  great  American  Orator  and 
Statesman,  are  so  liberal  and  so  comprehensive — so  full  of  true  love 
of  the  Country,  and  the  whcle  Country — so  strong  in  regard  for,  and 
devotion  to,  our  glorious  Constitution  and  Union  of  the  States — that 
it  would  seem  that  no  man,  with  an  American  heart  about  him,  can 
read  them,  without  participating  in  the  sentiments,  and  feeling  that 
he  is  a  better  citizen  for  the  perusal. 

June,  1851. 


130 


SPEECHES 


OP 


HON,  DANIEL   WEBSTER, 

AT 

BUFFALO,   SYRACUSE,   AND   ALBANY, 
MAY,    1851. 

SPEECH  AT  BUFFALO. 

FELLOW-CITIZENS  of  the  city  of  Buffalo,  I  am  very  glad  to  see  you  ;  I  meet 
you  with  pleasure.  It  is  not  the  first  time,  fellow-citizens,  that  I  have 
been  in  Buffalo ;  and  I  have  always  come  to  it  with  gratification.  It 
is  a  great  distance  from  my  own  home.  I  am  thankful  that  circumstances 
have  enabled  me  to  be  here  again,  and  I  regret  that  untoward  events  de 
prived  me  of  the  pleasure  of  being  with  you  when  your  distinguished  fellow- 
citizen,  the  President  of  the  United  States,  visited  you,  and  received 
from  you,  as  he  deserved,  not  only  a  respectful,  but  a  cordial  and  enthusiastic 
welcome.  The  President  of  the  United  States  has  been  a  resident  among  you 
for  more  than  half  his  life.  He  has  represented  you  in  the  State  and  Na 
tional  Councils.  You  know  him  and  all  his  relations,  both  public  and  pri 
vate,  and  it  would  be  bad  taste  in  me  to  say  anything  of  him,  except  that 
I  wish  to  say,  with  emphasis,  that'  since  my  connection  with  him  in  the  ad 
ministration  of  the  government  of  the  United  States,  I  have  fully  con 
curred  with  him  in  all  his  great  and  leading  measures.  This  might  be  in 
ferred  from  the  fact  that  I  have  been  one  of  his  ordinary  advisers.  But  I 
do  not  wish  to  let  it  rest  on  that  presumption ;  I  wish  to  declare  that  the 
principles  of  the  President,  as  set  forth  in  his  annual  message,  his  letters, 
and  all  documents  and  opinions  which  have  proceeded  from  him,  or  been 
issued  by  his  authority,  in  regard  to  the  great  question  of  the  times  ;  all  these 
principles  are  my  principles ;  and  if  he  is  wrong  in  them,  I  am,  (applause) 
and  always  shall  be.  (Applause.) 

Gentlemen,  it  has  been  suggested  that  it  would  be  pleasant  and  agree 
able  to  the  citizens  of  Buffalo,  and  their  neighbors  in  the  county  of  Erie,  that 
I  should  state  to  you  my  opinions,  such  as  they  are,  on  the  present  condi 
tion  of  the  country,  its  prospects,  its  hopes,  and  its  dangers ;  and  fellow- 
citizens,  I  -intend  to  do  that,  this  day,  and  this  hour,  as  far  as  my  strength 
will  permit. 

Gentlemen,  believe  me,  I  know  where  I  am.  I  know  to  whom  I  am  speak 
ing.  I  know  for  whom  I  am  speaking.  I  know  I  am  here  in  this  singularly 
prosperous  and  powerful  section  of  the  United  States,  Western  New  York, 
and  I  know  the  character  of  the  men  who  constitute  Western  New  York.  I 


6 

know  thew  are  sons  of  liberty,  one  and  all ;  that  they  sucked  in  liberty  with 
their  mothers'  milk  ;  inherited  it  with  their  blood  ;  that  it  is  the  subject  of 
their  daily  contemplation  and  watchful  thought.  They  are  men  of  a  very  sin 
gular  equality  of  condition,  for  a  million  and  a  half  of  people.  There  are 
thousands  of  men  around  us,  and  here  before  us,  who  till  their  own  soils  with 
their  own  hands  ;  and  others  who  earn  their  own  livelihood  by  their  own  labor 
in  the  workshops  and  other  places  of  industry  ;  and  they  are  independent,  in 
principle  and  in  condition,  having  neither  slaves  nor  masters,  and  not  intending 
to  have  either.  These  are  the  men  who  constitute,  to  a  great  extent,  the  peo 
ple  of  Western  New  York.  But  the  school-houses  I  know  are  among  them. 
Education  is  among  them.  They  read,  and  write,  and  think.  And  here  are 
women,  educated,  refined,  and  intelligent ;  and  here  are  men  who  know  the 
history  of  their  country,  and  the  laws  of  their  country,  and  the  institutions  of 
their  country  ;  and  men,  lovers  of  liberty  always,  and  yet  lovers  of  liberty  un 
der  the  Constitution  of  the  country,  and  who  mean  to  maintain  that  Constitu 
tion  with  all  their  strength,  so  help  them  God.  (Great  applause.)  I  hope 
these  observations  will  satisfy  you  that  I  know  where  I  am,  under  what  respon 
sibility  I  speak,  and  before  whom  I  appear  ;  and  I  have  no  desire  that  any 
word  I  shall  say  this  day,  shall  be  withholden  from  you,  or  your  children,  or 
your  neighbors,  or  the  whole  world  ;  for  I  speak  before  you  and  before  my  coun 
try,  and  if  it  be  not  too  solemn  to  say  so,  before  the  great  Author  of  all  things. 
Gentlemen,  there  is  but  one  question  in  this  country  now  ;  or  if  there  be 
others,  the  others  are  but  secondary,  or  so  subordinate,  that-  they  are  all  ab 
sorbed  in  that  great  and  leading  question  ;  and  that  is  neither  more  nor  less 
than  this :  Can  we  preserve  the  union  of  the  States,  not  by  coercion,  not  by 
military  power,  not  by  angry  controversies  ;  but  can  we  of  this  generation,  you 
and  I,  your  friends  and  my  friends,  can  we  so  preserve  the  union  of  these 
States,  by  such  administration  of  the  powers  of  the  Constitution,  as  shall  give 
content  and  satisfaction  to  all  who  live  under  it,  and  draw  us  together,  not  by 
military  power,  but  by  the  silken  cords  of  mutual,  fraternal,  patriotic  affection  ? 
That  is  the  question,  and  no  other.  Gentlemen,  I  believe  in  party  distinctions. 
I  am  a  party  man.  There  are  questions  belonging  to  party,  in  which  I  am 
concerned,  and  there  are  opinions  entertained  by  other  parties,  which  I  repu 
diate  ;  but  what  of  all  that  ?  If  a  house  be  divided  against  itself,  it  will  fall, 
and  crush  every  body  in  it.  We  must  see  that  we  maintain  the  government 
which  is  over  us.  We  must  see  that  we  uphold  the  Constitution,  and  we  must 
do  so  without  regard  to  party.  Now,  how  did  this  question  arise  ?  The  ques 
tion  is  forever  mis-stated.  I  dare  say  if  you  know  much  of  me,  or  of  my  course 
of  public  conduct,  for  the  last  fourteen  months,  you  have  heard  of  my  attending 
Union  meetings,  and  of  my  fervent  admonitions  at  Union  meetings.  Well, 
what  was  the  object  of  those  meetings?  What  was  their  purpose?  The  ob 
ject  and  purpose  have  been  designedly  or  thoughtlessly  misrepresented.  I  had 
an  invitation  to  attend  a  Union  meeting  in  the  county  of  Westchester  ;  I  could 
not  go,  but  wrote  a  letter.  Well,  some  wise  man  of  the  east  said  he  did  not 
think  it  was  very  necessary  to  hold  Union  meetings  in  Westchester.  lie  did  not 
think  there  were  many  disunionists  about  Tarr^town  !  And  so  in  many  parts 
of  New  York,  there  is  a  total  misapprehension  of  the  purpose  and  object  of 
these  Union  meetings.  Every  one  knows  there  is.  not  a  county,  or  a  city,  or  a 
hamlet  in  the  State  of  New  York,  that  is  ready  to  go  out  of  the  Union,  except 
some  small  bodies  of  fanatics.  There  is  no  man  so  insane  in  the  whole  State, 
outside  a  lunatic  asylum,  as  to  wish  it.  But  that  is  not  the  point.  We  all 
know  that  every  man  and  every  neighborhood,  and  all  corporations,  in  the 
State  of  New  York  are  attached  to  the  Union,  and  have  no  idea  of  withdraw 
ing  from  it,  except  those  I  have  mentioned.  But  that  is  not,  I  repeat,  the 
point ;  that  is  not  the  point.  The  question,  fellow-citizens,  (and  I  put  it  to 


you  now  as  the  real  question,)  the  question  is,  Whether  you  and  the  rest  of  the 
people  of  the  great  State  of  New  York,  and  of  all  the  States,  will  so  adhere  to  the 
Constitution,  will  so  enact  and  maintain  laws  to  preserve  that  instrument,  that 
you  will  not  only  remain  in  the  Union  yourselves,  but  permit  your  brethren  to 
remain  in  it,  and  help  to  perpetuate  it  ?  That  is  the  question.  Will  you  con 
cur  in  measures  necessary  to  maintain  the  Union  ?  or  will  you  oppose  such 
measures?  That  is  the  whole  point  of  the  case. 

You  have  thirty  or  forty  members  of  Congress  from  New  York  ;  you  have 
your  proportion  in  the  United  States  Senate.  We  have  many  members  of 
Congress  from  New  England.  Will  they  maintain  the  laws  that  are  passed 
for  the  administration  of  the  Constitution,  and  respect  the  rights  of  the  South, 
so  that  the  Union  may  be  held  together ;  and  not  only  that  we  may  not  go  out 
of  it  ourselves,  which  we  are  not  inclined  to  do,  but  that  by  asserting  and  main 
taining  the  rights  of  others,  they  may  also  remain  in  the  Union  ?  Now,  gen 
tlemen,  permit  me  to  say,  that  I  speak  of  no  concessions.  If  the  South  wish 
any  concession  from  me,  they  will  not  get  it ;  not  a  hair's  breadth  of  it.  If 
they  come  to  my  house  for  it,  they  will  not  find  it,  and  the  door  will  be  shut ; 
I  concede  nothing.  But  I  say  that  I  will  maintain  for  them,  as  I  will  maintain 
for  you,  to  the  utmost  of  my  power,  and  in  the  face  of  all  danger,  their  rights 
under  the  Constitution,  and  your  rights  under  the  Constitution.  (Cries  of 
"  Good,  Good,"  &c.)  And  I  shall  never  be  found  to  falter  in  one  or  the  other. 
(Tremendous  applause.)  It  is  obvious  to  every  one,  and  we  all  know  it,  that 
the  origin  of  the  great  disturbance  which  agitates  the  country,  is  the  existence 
of  slavery  in  some  of  the  States ;  but  we  must  meet  that  subject ;  we  must 
consider  it ;  we  must  deal  with  it,  earnestly,  honestly,  and  justly.  From  the 
mouth  of  the  St.  Johns  to  the  confines  of  Florida,  there  existed  in  the  year  of 
grace,  seventeen  hundred  and  seventy-five,  thirteen  colonies  of  English  origin, 
planted  at  different  times,  and  coming  from  different  parts  of  England,  bring 
ing  with  them  various  habits,  and  establishing,  each  for  itself,  institutions  en 
tirely  different  from  the  institutions  which  they  left,  and  in  many  cases  from 
each  other.  But  they  were  all  of  English  origin.  The  English  language  was 
theirs;  Shakspeare  and  Milton  were  theirs,  and  the  Christian  religion  was 
theirs  ;  and  these  things  held  them  together  by  the  force  of  a  common  charac 
ter.  The  aggressions  of  the  parent  State  compelled  them  to  set  up  for  inde 
pendence.  They  declared  independence,  and  that  immortal  act,  pronounced 
on  the  fourth  of  July,  seventeen  hundred  and  seventy-six,  made  them  indepen 
dent.  That  was  an  act  of  union  by  the  United  States  in  Congress  assembled. 
But  this  act  of  itself  did  nothing  to  establish  over  them  a  general  government. 
They  had  a  Congress.  They  had  articles  of  confederation  to  prosecute  the 
war.  But  thus  far  they  were  still,  essentially,  separate  and  independent,  each 
of  the  other.  They  had  entered  into  a  simple  confederacy,  and  nothing  more. 
No  State  was  bound  by  what  it  did  not  itself  agree  to,  or  what  was  done  ac 
cording  to  the  provisions  of  the  Confederation.  That  was  the  state  of  things, 
gentlemen,  at  that  time.  The  war  went  on  ;  victory  perched  on  the  American 
eagle  ;  our  independence  was  acknowledged.  The  States  were  then  united  to 
gether  under  a  confederacy  of  very  limited  powers.  It  could  levy  no  taxes. 
It  could  not  enforce  its  own  decrees.  It  was  a  confederacy  instead  of  a  united 
government.  Experience  showed  that  this  was  insufficient  and  inefficient. 
And,  therefore,  beginning  as  far  back  almost  as  the  close  of  the  war,  measures 
were  taken  for  the  formation  of  a  united  government,  a  government  in  the 
strict  sense  of  the  term,  a  government  that  could  pass  laws  binding  on  the  citi 
zens  of  all  the  States,  and  which  could  enforce  those  laws  by  its  executive  pow 
ers,  having  them  interpreted  by  a  judicial  power  belonging  to  the  Government 
itself,  and  yet,  a  Government  of  strictly  limited  powers.  Well,  gentlemen, 
this  led  to  the  formation  of  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States,  and  that  in- 


8 

strument  was  framed  on  the  idea  of  a  limited  Government.  It  proposed  to 
leave,  and  did  leave,  the  different  domestic  institutions  of  the  several  States  to 
themselves.  It  did  not  propose  consolidation.  It  did  not  propose  that  the 
laws  of  Virginia  should  be  the  laws  of  New  York,  or  that  the  laws  of  New 
York  should  be  the  laws  of  Massachusetts.  It  proposed  only  that,  for  certain 
purposes,  and  to  a  certain  extent,  there  should  be  a  united  Government,  and 
that  that  Government  should  have  the  power  of  executing  its  own  laws.  All 
the  rest  was  left  to  the  several  States.  And  we  now  come,  gentlemen,  to  the 
very  point  of  the  case.  At  that  time  slavery  existed  in  the  Southern  States, 
entailed  upon  them  in  the  time  of  the  supremacy  of  British  laws  over  us. 
There  it  was.  It  was  obnoxious  to  the  Middle  and  Eastern  States,  and  hon 
estly  and  seriously  disliked,  as  the  records  of  the  country  will  show,  by  the 
Southern  States  themselves.  Now,  how  were  they  to  deal  with  it?  Were 
the  Northern  and  Middle  States  to  exclude  from  the  Government  those  States 
of  the  South  which  had  produced  a  Washington,  a  Laurens,  and  other  distin 
guished  patriots,  who  had  so  truly  served,  and  so  greatly  honored,  the  whole 
country  ?  Were  they  to  be  excluded  from  the  new  Government  because  they 
tolerated  the  institution  of  Slavery  ?  Your  fathers,  and  my  fathers  did  not 
think  so.  They  did  not  see  that  it  would  be  of  the  least  advantage  to  the 
slaves  of  the  Southern  States,  to  cut  off  the  South  from  all  connection  with  the 
North.  Their  views  of  humanity  led  to  no  such  result ;  and,  of  course  when 
the  Constitution  was  framed  and  established,  and  adopted  by  you,  here  in  New 
York,  and  by  New  England,  it  contained  an  express  provision  of  security  to  the 
persons  who  lived  in  the  Southern  States,  in  regard  to  fugitives  who  owed  them 
service ;  that  is  to  say,  the  fugitive  from  service  or  labor,  it  was  stipulated, 
should  be  restored  to  his  master  or  owner  if  he  escaped  into  a  free  State.  Well, 
that  had  been  the  history  of  the  country  from  its  first  settlement.  It  was  a  mat 
ter  of  common  practice  to  return  fugitives  before  the  Constitution  was  formed. 
Fugitive  slaves  from  Virginia  to  Massachusetts  was  restored  by  the  people  of 
Massachusetts.  At  that  day  there  was  a  great  system  of  apprenticeship  at 
the  North,  and  many  apprentices  at  the  North,  taking  advantage  of  cir 
cumstances,  and  of  vessels  sailing  to  the  South,  thereby  escaped ;  and 
they  were  restored  on  proper  claim  and  proof.  That  led  to  a  clear, 
express,  and  well-defined  provision  in  the  Constitution  of  the  country  on 
the  subject.  Now,  I  know  that  all  these  things  are  common ;  that  they 
have  been  stated  a  thousand  .times ;  but  in  these  days  of  perpetual  discon 
tent  and  misrepresentation,  to  state  a  thing  a  thousand  times  is  not  enough  ; 
for  there  are  more  than  a  thousand  persons,  whose  consciences,  one  would 
think,  lead  them  to  make  it  a  duty  to  deny,  misrepresent,  falsify,  and  cover 
up  truths. 

Now  here  is  the  Constitution,  fellow-citizens,  and  I  have  taken  the  pains 
to  transcribe  therefrom  these  words,  so  that  he  who  runs  may  read : 

"NO  PERSON  HELD  TO  SERVICE  OR  LABOR  IN  ONE  STATE,  UNDER  THE 
LAWS  THEREOF,  ESCAPING  INTO  ANOTHER,  SHALL,  IN  CONSEQUENCE  OP  ANT 
LAW  OR  REGULATION  THEREIN,  BE  DISCHARGED  FROM  SUCH  SERVICE  OR 
LABOR,  BUT  SHALL  BE  DELIVERED  UP  ON  CLAIM  OP  THE  PARTY  TO  WHOM 
SUCH  SERVICE  OR  LABOR  MAY  BE  DUE." 

Is  there  any  mistake  about  that  ?  Is  there  any  forty  shilling  attorney  here 
to  make  a  question  of  it  ?  No.  I  will  not  disgrace  my  profession  by  sup 
posing  such  a  thing.  There  is  not  in  or  out  of  an  attorney's  office  in  the 
county  of  Erie,  or  elsewhere,  one  who  could  raise  a  doubt,  or  a  particle  of  a 
doubt,  about  the  meaning  of  this  provision  of  the  Constitution.  He  may  act 
as  witnesses  do,  sometimes,  on  the  stand.  He  may  wriggle  and  twist,  and 
say  he  cannot  tell,  or  cannot  remember.  I  have  seen  many  such  exhibitions 
in  my  time,  on  the  part  of  witnesses,  to  falsify  and  deny  the  truth.  But  there 


is  no  man  who  can  read  these  words  of  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States, 
and  say  they  are  not  clear  and  imperative.  "  No  person,"  the  constitution 
says,  *•  held  to  service  or  labor  in  one  State,  under  the  laws  thereof,  escaping 
into  another,  shall  in  consequence  of  any  law  or  regulation  therein,  be  discharged 
from  such  service  or  labor,  but  shall  be  delivered  up  on  the  claim  of  the  party 
to  whom  such  service  or  labor  may  be  due."  Why,  you  are  told  by  forty  con 
ventions  in  Massachusetts,  in  Ohio,  in  New  York,  in  Syracuse,  and  elsewhere, 
that  if  a  colored  man  comes  here,  he  comes  as  a  freeman ;  that  is  a  non  se- 
quitur.  It  is  not  so.  If  he  comes  as  a  fugitive  from  labor,  the  Constitution 
says  he  is  not  a  freeman,  and  that  he  shall  be  delivered  up  to  those  who  are 
entitled  to  his  service.  Now,  gentlemen,  that  is  the  Constitution  of  the  United 
States.  Gentlemen,  do  we,  or  do  we  not,  mean  to  conform  to  it,  and  to  exe 
cute  that  part  of  the  Constitution  as  well  as  the  rest  of  it  ?  I  suppose  there 
are  before  me  here  members  of  Congress.  I  suppose  there  are  here  members 
of  the  State  Legislature,  or  executive  officers  under  the  State  Government.  I 
suppose  there  are  judicial  magistrates  of  New  York,  executive  officers,  asses 
sors,  supervisors,  justices  of  the  peace,  and  constables,  before  me.  Allow  me 
to  say,  gentlemen,  that  there  is  not,  that  there  cannot  be,  any  one  of  these 
officers  in  this  assemblage,  or  elsewhere,  who  has  not,  according  to  the  form  of 
his  usual  obligation,  bound  himself  by  a  solemn  oath,  before  God,  to  support 
the  Constitution.  They  have  taken  their  oaths  on  the  Holy  Evangelists  of 
Almighty  God,  or  by  uplifted  hand  as  the  case  may  be,  or  by  a  solemn  affirm 
ation,  as  is  the  practice  in  some  cases.  But  among  all  of  them,  there  is  not  a 
man  who  holds,  nor  is  there  any  man  who  can  hold,  any  office  in  the  gift  of  the 
United  States,  or  in  this  State,  or  in  any  other  State,  who  does  not  become 
bound,  by  the  solemn  obligation  of  an  oath,  that  he  will  support  the  Constitu 
tion  of  the  United  States.  Well,  is  he  to  tamper  with  that  ?  Is  he  to  falter  ? 
Gentlemen,  our  political  duties  are  as  much  matters  of  conscience  as  any  other 
duties ;  our  sacred  domestic  ties,  our  most  endearing  social  relations,  are  no 
more  the  subject  for  conscientious  consideration  and  conscientious  discharge, 
than  the  duties  we  enter  upon  under  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States. 
The  bonds  of  political  brotherhood,  are  the  bonds  which  hold  us  together  from 
Maine  to  Georgia. 

Now,  gentlemen,  that  is  the  plain  story  of  the  Constitution  of  the  United 
States,  on  the  question  of  slavery.  Gentlemen,  I  contend,  and  have  always 
contended,  that  after  the  adoption  of  the  Constitution,  any  measure  of  the  Gov 
ernment  calculated  to  bring  more  slave  territory  into  the  United  Slates,  was 
beyond  the  power  of  the  Constitution,  and  against  its  provisions.  That  is  my 
opinion,  and  it  always  has  been  my  opinion.  It  was  inconsistent  with  the  Con 
stitution  of  the  United  States,  or  thought  to  be  so,  in  Jefferson's  time,  to  attach 
Louisiana  to  the  United  States.  A  treaty  with  France  was  made  for  that 
purpose.  But  Jefferson's  opinion  at  that  moment  was,  that  an  alteration  of 
the  Constitution  was  necessary  to  enable  it  to  be  done.  In  consequence  of 
considerations,  which  I  need  not  now  recur  to,  that  opinion  was  abandoned,  and 
Louisiana  was  admitted  by  law,  without  any  provision  or  alteration  in  the  Consti 
tution.  At  that  time,  I  was  too  young  to  hold  any  office,  or  take  any  share  in 
the  political  affairs  of  the  country.  Louisiana  was  admitted  as  a  slave  State, 
and  became  entitled  to  her  representation  in  Congress  on  the  principle  of  a  mixed 
basis.  Florida  was  afterwards  admitted.  Then  too,  I  was  out  of  Congress ; 
I  had  been  in  it  once ;  but  I  had  nothing  to  do  with  the  Florida  treaty,  or  the 
admission  of  Florida.  My  opinion  remains  unchanged,  that  it  was  not  within 
the  original  scope  or  design  of  the  Constitution  to  admit  new  States  out  of  for 
eign  territory;  and  that  for  one,  I  never  would  consent  ;  and  no  matter  what 
may  be  said  at  the  Syracuse  convention,  or  at  any  other  assemblage  of  insane 
persons,  I  never  would  consent,  and  never  have  consented,  that  there  should 


10 

be  one  foot  of  slave  territory  beyond  what  the  old  thirteen  States  had  at  the 
time  of  the  formation  of  the  Union.  Never,  never.  The  man  cannot  show 
his  face  to  me  and  say  he  can  prove  that  I  ever  departed  from  that  doctrine. 
He  would  sneak  away,  and  slink  away,  or  hire  a  mercenary  Press,  that  he 
might  cry  out  what  tin  apostate  from  liberty  Daniel  Webster  has  become. 
(Laughter  and  cheers.)  He  knows  himself  to  be  a  hyp9crite  and  a  falsifier. 
But,  irentlcrnen,  I  was  in  public  life  when  the  proposition  to  annex  Texas  to 
the  United  States  was  brought  forward.  You  know  the  revolution  in  Texas, 
which  divided  that  country  from  Mexico,  occurred  in  the  year  1835  or  '36.  I 
saw  then,  and  1  do  not  know  that  it  required  any  particular  foresight,  that  it 
would  be  the  very  next  thing  to  bring  Texas,  which  was  designed  to  be  a  slave- 
holding  State,  into  this  Union.  I  did  not  wait.  I  sought  an  occasion  to  pro 
claim  my  utter  aversion  to  any  such  measure,  and  I  determined  to  resist  it 
with  all  my  strength  to  the  last.  Now,  gentlemen,  it  is  not  for  your  edification, 
I  am  sure,  that  I  now  revive,  what  I  have  before  spoken,  in  the  presence  of 
this  assembly.  I  was  in  this  city  in  the  year  1837,  and  long  before  I  left  New 
York  on  that  excursion,  in  the  course  of  which  I  went  to  the  South  and  re 
turned  here,  my  friends  in  New  York  were  kind  enough  to  offer  me  a  public 
dinner  as  a  testimony  of  their  public  regard.  I  went  out  of  my  way  on  that 
occasion,  for  the  purpose  of  showing  what  I  anticipated  in  the  attempt  to  annex 
Texas  as  a  slave  territory,  and  said  it  should  be  opposed  by  me  to  the  last  ex 
tremity.  And  in  Niblo's  Garden,  in  March,  1837,  I  made  a  speech.  Well, 
there  was  the  press  all  around  me.  The  whig  press  and  the  democratic  press. 
Some  spoke  in  terms  commendatory  enough  of  my  speech,  but  all  agreed  that 
I  took  pains  to  step  out  of  my  way  to  denounce  in  advance  the  annexation  of 
Texas  as  slave  territory  to  the  United  States.  I  said  on  that  occasion : 

"  Gentlemen,  we  all  see  that,  by  whomsoever  possessed,  Texas  is  likely  to 
be  a  slaveholding  country;  and  I  frankly  avow  my  entire  unwillingness  to  do 
anything  that  shall  extend  the  slavery  of  the  African  on  this  continent,  or  add 
other  slaveholding  States  to  the  Union.  When  I  said  that  I  regarded  slavery 
as  a  great  moral  and  political  evil,  I  only  used  language  that  has  been  adopted 
by  distinguished  men,  themselves  citizens  of  slaveholding  States.  I  shall  do 
nothing,  therefore,  to  extend  or  encourage  its  further  extension.  We  have 
slavery  already  amongst  us.  The  Constitution  found  it  amongst  us.  It  re 
cognized  it,  and  gave  it  solemn  guarantees.  To  the  full  extent  of  these  guaran 
tees  we  are  all  bound  in  honor,  in  justice,  and  by  the  Constitution.  All  the 
stipulations  contained  in  the  Constitution,  in  favor  of  the  slaveholding  States 
which  are  already  in  the  Union,  ought  to  be  fulfilled,  and,  so  far  as  depends  on 
me,  shall  be  fulfilled,  in  the  fullness  of  their  spirit,  and  to  the  exactness  of 
their  letter.  Slavery,  as  it  exists  in  the  States,  is  beyond  the  reach  of  Con 
gress.  It  is  the  concern  of  the  States  themselves.  They  have  never  submit 
ted  it  to  Congress,  and  Congress  has  no  right  or  power  over  it.  I  shall  con 
cur,  therefore,  in  no  act,  no  measure,  no  menace,  no  indication  or  purpose, 
which  shall  interfere,  or  threaten  to  interfere,  with  the  exclusive  authority  of 
the  several  States  over  the  subject  of  slavery,  as  it  exists  within  their  respec 
tive  limits.  All  this  appears  to  me  to  be  a  matter  of  plain  and  imperative 
duty.  But  when  we  come  to  speak  of  admitting  new  States,  the  subject  asumes 
a  new  and  entirely  different  aspect.  Our  rights  and  our  duties  are  then  both 
different.  The  free  States  and  all  the  States  are  then  at  liberty  to  accept  or 
reject.  When  it  is  proposed  to  bring  new  members  into  the  political  partner 
ship,  the  old  members  have  a  right  to  say  on  what  terms  such  partners  are  to 
come  in,  and  what  they  are  to  bring  along  with  them.  In  my  opinion,  the 
people  of  the  United  States  will  not  consent  to  bring  in  a  new,  vastly  extensive, 
and  slaveholding  country,  large  enough  for  half  a  dozen  or  a  dozen  States,  into 
the  Union.  In  my  opinion  they  ought  not  to  consent  to  it." 


11 

Gentlemen,  I  was  mistaken  ;  Congress  did  consent  to  the  bringing  in  of 
Texas.  They  did  consent,  and  I  was  a  false  prophet.  Your  own  State  con 
sented,  and  the  majority  of  the  representatives  of  New  York  consented.  I 
went  into  Congress  before  the  final  consummation  of  the  deed,  and  there  I 
fought,  holding  up  both  my  hands,  and  proclaiming,  with  a  voice  stronger  than 
it  now  is,  my  remonstrances  against  the  whole  of  it.  But  you  would  have  it 
so,  and  you  did  have  it  so.  Nay,  gentlemen  I  will  tell  the  truth,  whether  it 
shames  the  devil  or  not.  (Laughter.)  Persons  who  have  aspired  high  as 
lovers  of  liberty,  as  eminent  lovers  of  the  Wilmot  Proviso,  as  eminent  Free-soil 
men,  and  who  have  mounted  over  our  heads,  and  trodden  us  down  as  if  we 
were  mere  slaves,  they  are  the  men,  the  very  men,  that  brought  Texas  into 
this  country,  insisting  that  they  are  the  only  true  lovers  of  liberty  ;  and  yet 
that  is  the  truth,  the  whole  truth,  and  nothing  but  the  truth,  and  I  declare  it 
before  you  this  day.  Look  to  the  journals.  Without  the  consent  of  New 
York,  Texas  would  not  have  come  into  the  Union,  under  either  the  original 
resolutions  or  afterwards.  But  New  York  voted  for  the  measure.  The  two 
Senators  from  New  York  voted  for  it,  and  turned  the  question,  and  you  may 
thank  them  for  the  glory,  the  renown,  and  the  happiness  of  having  five  or  six; 
slave  States  added  to  the  Union.  (Great  sensation.)  Do  not  blame  me  for 
it.  Let  them  answer  w?ho  did  the  deed,  and  who  are  now  proclaiming  liberty, 
crying  up  their  free-soil  creed,  and  using  it  for  humbug  and  trading  purposes. 

Gentlemen,  who  aided  in  bringing  in  Texas  ?  It  was  all  fairly  told  to  you, 
both  beforehand  and  afterwards.  You  heard  Moses  and  the  prophets,  (laugh 
ter,)  but  if  one  had  risen  from  the  dead,  such  was  your  devotion  to  that  policy, 
at  that  time,  that  you  would  not  have  heard  him,  or  listened  to  him  for  a  mo 
ment.  I  do  not,  of  course,  speak  of  the  persons  now  here  before  me,  but  of 
the  general  political  tone  in  New  York,  and  especially  of  those  who  are  now 
free-soil, apostles.  Well,  all  that  I  do  not  complain  of,  but  I  will  not  now,  or 
hereafter,  before  the  country,  or  the  world,  consent  to  be  numbered  among 
those  who  introduced  new  slave  power  into  the  Union.  I  did  all  in  my  power 
to  prevent  it.  (Applause.)  Then  again,  gentlemen,  the  Mexican  war  broke 
out.  Vast  territory  was  acquired,  and  the  peace  was  made  ;  and,  much  as  I 
disliked  the  war,  I  disliked  the  peace  more,  because  it  brought  in  these  terri 
tories.  I  wished  for  peace  indeed,  but  I  desired  to  strike  out  the  grant  of  ter 
ritory  on  the  one  side,  and  the  payment  of  the  Si 2, 000,000  on  the  other.  That 
territory  was  unknown.  I  did  not  know  what  it  might  be.  The  plan  came 
from  the  South.  I  knew  that  certain  Southern  gentlemen  wished  the  acquisi 
tion  of  California,  New  Mexico,  and  Ulah,  as  a  means  of  extending  slave 
power  and  slave  population;  almost  every  thing  was  unknown  about  the  coun 
try.  I  did  not  fall  into  their  idea  much;  but  seeing  a  quarrel,  and  as  I  con 
ceived,  seeing  how  much  it  would  distract  the  Union,  I  voted  against  the  peace 
with  Mexico.  I  voted  against  the  acquisition.  I  wanted  none  of  her  territory, 
California,  New  Mexico,  nor  Utah.  They  were  rather  ultra-American,  as  I 
thought.  They  were  far  from  us,  and  I  saw  that  they  might  lead  to  a  political 
disturbance,  and  I  voted  against  them  all,  against  the  treaty  and  against  the 
peace,  and  I  am  glad  of  it,  rather  than  have  the  territories.  Seeing  that  it 
would  be  an  occasion  of  dispute,  that  by  the  controversy  the  whole  Union 
would  be  agitated,  Messrs.  Berrien,  Badger,  and  other  respectable  and  distin 
guished  men  of  the  South,  voted  against  the  acquisition,  and  the  treaty  which 
secured  it;  and  if  the  men  of  the  North  had  voted  the  same  way.  we  should 
have  been  spared  all  the  difficulties  that  have  grown  out  of  it.  We  should 
have  had  the  peace,  without  the  territories.  (Applause.)  Now,  there  is  no 
sort  of  doubt,  gentlemen,  that  there  were  some  persons  in  the  South  who  sup 
posed  that  California,  if  it  came  in  at  all,  would  come  in  as  a  slave  State.  You 
know  the  extraordinary  events  which  immediately  occured.  Tou  know  that 


12 

California  received  a  rush  from  the  Northern  people,  and  that  an  African 
slave  could  no  more  live  there  than  he  could  live  on  the  top  of  Mount  Hecla. 
Of  necessity  it  became  a  free  State,  and  that,  no  doubt,  was  a  source  of  much 
disappointment  to  the  South.  And  then  there  was  New  Mexico  and  Utah ; 
what  was  to  be  done  with  them  ?  Why,  gentlemen,  from  the  best  investiga 
tion  I  had  given  the  subject,  and  the  reflection  I  had  devoted  to  it,  I  was  of  the 
opinion  that  the  mountains  of  New  Mexico  and  Utah  could  no  more  sustain 
American  slavery  than  the  snows  of  Canada.  I  saw  it  was  impossible.  I 
thought  so  then  ;  it  is  quite  evident  now.  Therefore,  gentlemen,  when  it  was 
proposed  in  Congress  to  apply  the  Wilmot  Proviso  to  New  Mexico  and  Utah, 
it  appeared  to  me  just  as  absurd  as  to  apply  it  here  in  Western  New  York.  I 
saw  that  the  snow  hills,  the  eternal  mountains,  and  the  climate  of  those  coun 
tries,  would  never  support  slavery.  No  man  could  carry  a  slave  there  with 
any  expectation  of  profit.  It  could  not  be  done  ;  and  as  the  South  regarded 
the  Proviso  as  merely  a  source  of  irritation,  and  by  some  as  designed  to  irri 
tate,  I  was  not  willing  to  adopt  it,  and  therefore,  I  saw  no  occasion  for  apply 
ing  the  Wilmot  Proviso  to  New  Mexico  or  Utah.  I  voted  accordingly,  and 
who  doubts  now  the  correctness  of  that  vote  ?  The  law  admitting  these  terri 
tories  passed  without  any  proviso.  Is  there  a  slave,  or  will  there  ever  be  one, 
in  either  of  those  territories  ?  Why,  there  is  not  a  man  in  the  United  States 
so  stupid  as  not  to  see  at  this  moment,  that  such  a  thing  was  wholly  unneces 
sary,  and  that  it  was  only  calculated  to  irritate  and  to  offend.  And  I  am  not 
one  who  is  disposed  to  create  irritation,  or  give  offence  to  our  brothers,  or  to 
break  up  fraternal  friendship  without  cause.  The  question  was  open  whether 
slavery  should  or  should  not  go  to  New  Mexico  or  Utah.  There  is  no  slavery 
there,  there  is  not  the  shining  face  of  an  African  there.  It  is  utterly  imprac 
ticable,  and  utterly  ridiculous  to  suppose  that  slavery  could  exist  there,  and  no 
one,  who  does  not  mean  to  deceive,  will  now  pretend  it  can  exist  there. 

Well,  gentlemen,  we  have  a  race  of  agitators  all  over  the  country,  some  con 
nected  with  the  press  ;  some  I  am  sorry  to  say,  connected  with  the  learned  profes 
sions.  They  agitate ;  their  livelihood  consists  in  agitating ;  their  freehold, 
their  copyhold,  their  capital,  their  all  in  all,  depend  on  the  excitement  of  the 
public  mind.  Gentlemen,  these  things  were  going  on  at  the  commencement 
of  the  year  1850.  There  were  two  great  questions  before  the  public.  There 
was  the  question  of  the  Texan  boundary,  and  of  a  government  for  Utah  and 
New  Mexico,  which  I  consider  as  one  question  ;  and  there  was  the  question  of 
making  a  provision  for  the  restoration  of  fugitive  slaves.  Gentlemen,  on  these 
subjects,  I  have  something  to  say.  Texas,  as  you  know,  established  her  inde 
pendence  of  Mexico,  by  her  revolution  and  the  battle  of  San  Jacinto,  which 
made  her  a  sovereign  power.  I  have  already  stated  to  you,  what  I  then  an 
ticipated  from  the  movement,  that  she  would  ask  to  come  into  the  Union  as  a 
slave  State.  We  admitted  her  in  1845,  and  we  admitted  her  as  a  slave  State. 
We  admitted  her  in  1845,  and  we  admitted  her  with  an  undefined  boundary; 
remember  that.  She  claimed  by  conquest  all  that  territory  which  was  com 
monly  called  New  Mexico,  East  of  the  Rio  Grande.  She  claimed  also  those 
limits  which  her  Constitution  had  declared  and  established  as  the  proper  limits 
of  Texas.  This  was  her  claim,  and  when  she  was  admitted  into  the  United 
States,  the  United  States  did  not  define  her  territory.  They  admitted  her  as 
she  was.  We  took  her  as  she  defined  her  own  limits,  and  with  the  power  of 
making  four  additional  slave  States.  I  say  "we,"  but  I  do  not  mean  that  I 
was  one  ;  I  mean  the  United  States  admitted  her.  Now,  to  judge  fairly,  let  us 
go  back  to  1850.  What  was  the  state  of  things  in  1850?  There  was  Texas 
claiming  all,  or  a  great  part  of  that,  which  the  United  States  had  acquired  from 
Mexico  as  New  Mexico.  She  stated  that  it  belonged  to  her  by  conquest  and 
by  her  admission  into  the  United  States,  and  she  was  ready  to  maintain  her 


13 

claims  by  force  of  arms.  Recollect  that  is  not  all.  A  man  must  be  ignorant 
of  the  history  of  the  country  who  does  not  know,  that  at  the  commencement  of 
1850  there  was  a  great  agitation  throughout  the  whole  South.  Who  does  not 
know  that  six  or  seven  of  the  largest  States  of  the  South  had  already  taken 
measures  for  separation ;  were  preparing  for  disunion  in  some  way  ?  They 
concurred,  apparently,  at  least  some  of  them,  with  Texas,  while  Texas  was 
prepared  or  preparing  to  enforce  her  rights  by  force  of  arms.  Troops  were 
enlisted,  and  do  not  you  remember,  gentlemen,  at  this  time,  and  in  this  state  of 
things,  how  many  thousand  persons  in  the  South  were  disaffected  towards  the 
Union,  or  were  desirous  for  breaking  it  up,  or  were  ready  to  join  Texas ; 
to  join  her  ranks,  and  see  what  they  could  make,  in  a  war  to  establish  the 
rights  of  Texas  to  New  Mexico  ?  The  public  mind  was  disturbed.  There 
were  thousands  and  thousands  ready  to  join  Texas.  Now,  a  great  part  of  the 
South  at  this  time  was  disaffected  towards  the  Union.  These  very  men  were 
in  a  condition  to  fall  into  any  course  of  things  that  should  be  violent  and  de 
structive.  Well  then,  gentlemen,  what  was  to  be  done  let  me  ask  again,  as  far 
as  Texas  was  concerned  ?  Allow  me  to  say,  gentlemen,  there  are  two  sorts  of 
foresight.  There  is  a  military  foresight,  which  sees  what  will  be  the  result  of 
an  appeal  to  arms ;  and  there  is  also  a  statesmanlike  foresight,  which  looks  not 
to  the  result  of  battles  and  carnage,  but  to  the  results  of  political  disturbances, 
the  violence  of  faction  carried  into  military  operations,  and  the  horrors  attend 
ant  on  civil  war. 

I  never  had  a  doubt,  gentlemen,  that  if  the  administration  of  General  Tay 
lor  had  gone  to  war,  and  had  sent  troops  into  New  Mexico,  that  he  would  have 
whipped  the  Texas  forces  in  a  week.  The  power  on  one  side  was  far  superior 
to  all  the  power  on  the  other.  But  what  then  ?  What  if  Texan  troops,  as 
sisted  by  thousands  of  volunteers,  from  the  disaffected  States,  had  gone  to  New 
Mexico,  and  had  been  defeated  and  turned  back,  would  that  have  settled  the 
boundary  question  ?  Now,  gentlemen,  I  wish  I  had  ten  thousand  voices.  I 
wish  I  could  draw  around  me  the  whole  people  of  the  United  States,  and  I 
wish  I  could  make  them  all  hear  what  I  now  declare  on  my  own  conscience, 
before  the  Power  who  sits  on  high,  and  who  will  judge  you  and  me  hereafter, 
as  my  solemn  belief,  that  if  this  Texas  controversy  had  not  been  settled  by 
Congress  in  the  manner  called  the  adjustment  measures,  civil  war  would  have 
ensued  ;  blood,  American  blood,  would  have  been  shed  ;  and  who  can  tell  what 
else  would  have  been  the  consequence  ?  Gentlemen,  in  an  honorable  war,  if 
a  foreign  foe  invade  us,  if  our  rights  were  threatened,  if  it  were  necessary 
to  defend  them  by  arms,  I  am  not  afraid  of  blood.  And,  if  I  am  too  old 
myself,  I  hope  there  are  those  connected  with  me  who  are  young,  and  willing 
to  defend  their  country  to  the  last  drop  of  their  own  blood.  (Sensation.)  But 
I  cannot  express  the  horror  I  feel  at  the  shedding  of  blood  in  a  controversy 
between  one  of  these  States  and  the  government  of  the  United  States,  because 
I  see  in  it,  in  the  sight  of  Heaven,  a  total  and  entire  disruption  of  all  (hose 
ties  that  make  us  a  great  and  a  happy  people. 

Gentlemen,  that  was  the  great  question,  the  leading  question,  at  the  com 
mencement  of  the  year  1850.  Then  there  was  the  other,  and  that  was  the 
matter  of  the  Fugitive  Slave  Law.  Let  me  say  a  word  about  that.  Under 
the  provisions  of  the  Constitution  in  General  Washington's  administration,  in 
the  year  1793,  there  was  passed  a  law  for  the  restoration  of  fugitive  slaves,  by 
general  consent.  Hardly  any  one  opposed  it  at  that  period ;  it  was  thought  to 
be  necessary,  in  order  to  carry  the  Constitution  into  effect :  the  great  men  of 
New  England  and  New  York  all  concurred  in  it.  It  passed,  and  answered  all  the 
purposes  expected  from  it  till  about  the  year  1841  or  1842,  when  the  States 
interfered  to  make  enactments  in  opposition  to  it.  The  law  of  Congress  said 
that  State  magistrates  might  execute  the  duties  of  the  law.  Some  of  the  States 


14 

passed  enactments  imposing  a  penalty  on  any  who  exercised  authority  un 
der  the  law.  or  assisted  in  its  execution  ;  others  denied  the  use  of  their  jails  to 
carrv  the  la\v  into  effect ;  and,  generally,  at  the  commencement  of  the  year 
1850,  it  was  absolutely,  I  say  it  was  absolutely,  indispensable  that  Congress 
should  pass  some  law  for  the  execution  of  this  provision  of  the  Constitution,  or 
else  give  up  that  provision  entirely.  That  was  the  question.  I  was  in  Con 
gress  when  the  subject  was  proposed.  I  was  for  a  proper  law.  I  had,  indeed, 
proposed  a  different  law  ;  I  was  of  opinion  that  a  summary  trial  by  a  jury 
might  be  had.  which  would  satisfy  the  prejudices  of  the  people,  and  produce  no 
harm  to  those  who  claimed  the  service  of  fugitives;  but  I  left  the  Senate,  and 
went  to  another  station,  befDre  the  law  was  passed.  The  law  of  1850  passed. 
Now  1  undertake,  as  a  lawyer,  and  on  my  professional  character,  to  say  to  you 
and  to  all.  that  the  law  of  1850  is  decidedly  more  favorable  to  the  fugitive  than 
(leneral  Washington's  law  of  1793;  and  I  tell  you  why.  In  the  first  place, 
the  present  law  places  the  power  in  much  higher  hands  ;  in  the  hands  of  inde 
pendent  judges  of  the  Supreme,  and  Circuit  Courts,  and  District  Courts,  and 
Commissioners  who  are  appointed  to  office  for  their  law  learning.  Every  fugi 
tive  is  brought  before  a  tribunal  of  high  character,  of  eminent  ability,  of  re 
spectable  station.  Well,  then,  in  the  second  place,  when  a  claimant  comes 
from  Virginia  to  New  York,  to  say  that  one  A  or  one  B  has  run  away,  or  is  a 
fugitive  from  service,  or  labor,  he  brings  with  him  a  record  of  the  county  from 
which  he  comes,  and  that  record  must  be  sworn  to  before  a  magistrate,  and  cer 
tified  by  the  county  clerk,  and  bear  an  official  seal.  The  affidavit  must  state 
that  A  or  B  (as  the  case  may  be)  had  departed  under  such  and  such  circum 
stances,  and  had  gone  to  another  State  ;  and  that  record,  under  seal  is,  by  the 
Constitution  of  the  United  States,  entitled  to  full  credit  in  every  State.  Well, 
the  claimant  or  his  agent  comes  here,  and  he  presents  to  you  the  seal  of  the 
courts  of  Virginia,  that  A  or  B  had  escaped  from  service.  He  must  prove 
that  he  is  here.  He  brings  a  witness,  and  asks  if  this  is  the  man,  and  he 
proves  it ;  or  in  ten  cases  out  of  eleven,  the  answer  would  be,  "  Yes,  massa,  I 
am  your  slave  ;  I  did  escape  from  your  service." 

Such  is  the  present  law ;  and,  as  much  opposed  and  maligned  as  it  is, 
it  is  a  more  favorable  law  to  the  fugitive  slave  than  the  law  enacted  in  Wash 
ington's  time,  in  1793,  which  was  sanctioned  by  the  North  as  well  as  by  the 
South.  The  existing,  violent,  and  unceasing  opposition,  has  sprung  up  in  modern 
times.  From  what  does  this  clamor  come  ?  Why,  look  at  the  proceedings  of  the 
Anti-slavery  conventions  ;  look  at  their  resolutions.  Do  you  find  among  all 
those  persons  who  oppose  this  Fugitive  Slave  law,  any  admission,  whatever,  that 
any  law  ought  to  be  passed  to  carry  into  effect  the  solemn  stipulations  of  the  Con 
stitution?  Tell  me  any  such  case  ;  tell  me  if  any  resolution  was  passed  by  the 
Convention  at  Syracuse,  favoring  the  carrying  out  of  the  Constitution?  Not 
one  !  The  fact  is,  gentlemen,  they  oppose  the  whole!  they  oppose  the  whole  ! 
Not  a  man  of  them  admits  that  there  ought  to  be  any  law  on  the  subject.  They 
deny,  altogether,  that  the  provisions  of  the  Constitution  ought  to  be  carried  into 
eiVect.  Well,  what  do  they  say  ?  Look  at  the  proceedings  of  the  Anti-slavery 
conventions  in  Ohio,  Massachusetts,  and  at  Syracuse,  in  the  State  of  New 
York.  What  do  they  say?  "That,  so  help  them  God,  no  colored  man  shall 
be  sent  from  the  State  of  New  York,  back  to  his  master  in  Virginia !"  Do 
not  they  say  that  ?  and,  for  the  fulfillment  of  that,  they  "  pledge  their  lives,  their 
fortunes,  and  their  sacred  honor."  (Laughter.)  Their  sacred  honor!!  ^Laugh 
ter.)  They  pledge  their  sacred  honor  to  violate  the  laws  of  their  country  ; 
they  pledge  their  sacred  honor  to  resist  their  execution  ;  they  pledge  their  sa 
cred  honor  to  commit  treason  against  the  laws  of  their  country  ! 

I  have  already  stated,  gentlemen,  what  your  observation  of  these  things 
must  have  taught  you.  I  will  only  recur  to  the  subject  for  a  moment,  for  the 


15 

purpose  of  pursuading  you,  as  public  men  and  private  men,  as  good  men  and 
patriotic  men,  that  you  ought  to  the  extent  of  your  ability  and  influence,  to  see 
to  it,  that  such  laws  are  established  and  maintained  as  shall  keep  you,  and  the 
South,  and  the  West,  and  all  the  country  together,  as  far  as  it  is  just  and  right, 
and  as  far  as  the  Constitution  demands.  I  say,  that  what  is  demanded  of  us 
is,  to  be  up  to  our  constitutional  duties,  and  to  do  for  the  South  what  the  South 
have  a  right  to  demand. 

Gentlemen,  I  have  been  some  time  before  the  public.  My  character  is 
known,  my  life  is  before  the  country.  I  profess  to  love  liberty  as  much  as  any 
man  living ;  but  I  profess  to  love  American  liberty,  that  liberly  which  is  se 
cured  to  the  country  by  the  Constitution  under  which  we  live  ;  and  I  have  no 
great  opinion  of  that  other  and  higher  liberty  which  goes  over  the  restraints  of 
law  and  of  the  Constitution.  I  hold  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States  to 
be  the  bulwark,  the  only  bulwark,  of  our  liberties  and  of  our  national  charter. 
I  do  not  mean  that  you  should  become  slaves  under  the  Constitution.  That  is 
not  American  liberty.  That  is  not  the  liberty  of  the  Union  for  which  our 
fathers  fought,  that  liberty  which  has  given  us  a  right  to  be  known  and  re 
spected  all  over  the  world.  I  mean  only  to  say,  that  I  am  for  Constitutional 
Liberty.  It  is  enough  for  me  to  be  as  free  as  the  Constitution  of  the  country 
makes  me. 

Now,  gentlemen,  let  me  say,  that  as  much  as  I  respect  the  character  of  the 
people  of  Western  New  York,  as  much  as  I  wish  to  retain  your  good  opinion, 
if  you  should  ever  place  me,  hereafter,  in  any  connection  with  public  life,  let 
me  tell  you  now  that  you  must  not  expect  from  me  the  slightest  variation,  even 
of  a  hair's  breadth,  from  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States.  (Cries  of 
"  Good,  good,  good.")  I  am  a  Northern  man.  I  was  born  at  the  North,  edu 
cated  at  the  North,  have  lived  all  my  days  at  the  North.  I  know  five  hundred 
Northern  men  to  one  Southern  man.  My  sympathies,  all  my  sympathies,  my 
love  of  liberty  for  all  mankind,  of  every  color,  are  the  same  as  yours.  My  af 
fections  and  hopes  in  that  respect  are  exactly  like  yours.  I  wish  to  see  all 
men  free,  all  men  happy.  I  have  few  personal  associations  out  of  the  North 
ern  States.  My  people  are  your  people.  And  yet  I  am  told  sometimes  that 
I  am  not  a  liberty  man,  because  I  am  not  a  Free-soil  man.  (Laughter.)  What 
am  I  ?  What  was  I  ever  ?  What  shall  I  be  hereafter,  if  I  could  sacrifice,  for 
any  consideration,  that  love  of  American  liberty  which  has  glowed  in  my  breast 
since  my  infancy,  and  which,  I  hope,  will  never  leave  me  till  I  expire  ?  (Ap 
plause.) 

Gentlemen,  I  regret  that  slavery  exists  in  the  Southern  States,  but  it  is 
clear  and  certain,  that  Congress  has  no  power  over  it.  It  may  be,  however, 
that  in  the  dispensation  of  Providence,  some  remedy  for  this  evil  may  occur, 
or  may  be  hoped  for  hereafter.  But,  in  the  meantime,  I  hold  on  to  the  Con 
stitution  of  the  United  States,  and  you  need  never  expect  from  me,  under  any 
circumstances,  that  1  shall  falter  from  it :  that  I  shall  be  otherwise  than  frank 
and  decisive.  1  would  not  part  with  my  character  as  a  man  of  firmness  and 
decision,  and  honor  and  principle,  for  all  that  the  world  possesses.  You  will 
find  me  true  to  the  North,  because  all  my  sympathies  are  with  the  North.  My 
affections,  my  children,  my  hopes,  my  everything  are  with  the  North.  But 
when  I  stand  up  before  my  country,  as  one  appointed  to  administer  the  Con 
stitution  of  the  country,  by  the  blessing  of  God  I  will  be  just.  (Great  ap 
plause  ) 

Gentlemen,  I  expect  to  be  libeled  and  abused,  Yes  !  libeled  and  abused 
But  it  don't  disturb  me.  I  have  not  lost  a  night's  rest  for  a  great  many  years 
from  any  such  cause.  I  have  some  talent  for  sleeping.  (Laughter.)  And 
why  should  I  not  expect  to  be  libeled  ?  Is  not  the  Constitution  of  the  United 
States  libeled  and  abused?  Do  not  some  people  call  it  the  production  of  hell? 


16 

Is  not  Washington  libeled  and  abused  ?  Is  he  not  called  a  bloodhound  on  the 
track  of  the  African  negro  ?  Are  not  our  fathers  libeled  and  abused  by  their 
own  children  ?  And  ungrateful  children  they  are.  How,  then,  shall  I  escape  ? 
I  do  not  expect  to  escape ;  but,  knowing  these  things,  I  impute  no  bad  motive 
to  any  men  of  character  and  fair  standing.  The  great  settlement  measures  of 
the  last  Congress  are  laws.  Many  respectable  men,  representatives  from  your 
own  State  and  from  other  States,  did  not  concur  in  them.  I  do  not  impute 
any  bad  motive  to  them.  I  am  ready  to  believe  they  are  Americans  all. 
They  may  not  have  thought  them  necessary ;  or  they  may  have  thought  these 
laws  would  be  enacted  without  their  concurrence.  Let  all  that  pass  away.  If 
they  are  now  men  who  will  stand  by  what  is  done,  and  stand  up  for  their  coun 
try,  and  say  that  these  laws  were  passed  by  a  majority  of  the  whole  country, 
and  we  must  stand  by  them  and  live  by  them,  I  will  respect  them  all  as  friends. 

Now,  gentlemen,  allow  me  to  ask  of  you,  to-day,  What  do  you  think  would 
have  be  the  condition  of  the  country,  at  this  time  if  these  laws  had  not  been 
passed  by  the  last  Congress  ?  If  the  question  of  the  Texas  boundary  had  not 
been  settled  ?  New  Mexico  and  Utah  had  been  left  as  desert  places,  and  no 
government  had  been  provided  for  them  ?  And  if  the  other  great  questions  to 
which  State  laws  had  opposed  so  many  obstacles,  in  the  restoration  of  fugitives, 
had  not  been  settled,  I  ask  what  would  have  been  the  state  of  this  country 
now  ?  You  »nen  of  Erie  county,  you  men  of  New  York,  1  conjure  you  to  go 
home  to-night  and  meditate  on  this  subject.  What  would  have  been  the  state 
of  this  country,  now  at  this  moment,  if  these  laws  had  not  been  passed  ?  I 
have  given  my  opinion  that  we  should  have  had  a  civil  war.  I  refer  it  to  you, 
therefore,  for  your  consideration  ;  meditate  on  it ;  do  not  be  carried  away  by 
any  notions  or  ideas  of  metaphysics  ;  think  practically  on  the  great  question  of 
what  would  have  been  the  condition  of  the  United  States  at  this  moment,  if  we 
had  not  settled  these  agitating  questions.  I  have  stated  that,  in  my  opinion, 
there  would  have  been  a  civil  war. 

Gentlemen,  will  you  allow  me,  for  a  moment,  to  advert  to  myself?  I  have 
been  a  long  time  in  public  life,  of  course  not  many  years  remain  to  me.  At 
the  commencement  of  1850,  I  saw  something  of  the  condition  of  the  country, 
and  I  thought  the  inevitable  consequence  would  be  civil  war.  I  saw  danger 
in  leaving  Utah  and  New  Mexico  without  any  government,  a  prey  to  the  pow 
er  of  Texas.  I  saw  the  condition  of  things  arising  from  the  interference  of 
some  of  the  States  in  defeating  the  operation  of  the  Constitution  in  respect  to 
the  restoration  of  fugitive  slaves.  And,  gentlemen,  I  made  up  my  mind  to  en 
counter  whatever  might  betide  me  ;  and,  allow  me  to  say  something  which  is 
not  entirely  unworthy  of  notice.  A  member  of  the  House  of  Representatives 
told  me  that  he  had  made  a  list  of  140  speeches  which  had  been  made  in  Con 
gress  on  the  slavery  question.  "  That  is  a  very  large  number,  my  friend,"  I 
said  ;  "  but  how  is  that  ?  "  "  Why,"  said  he,  "  a  Northern  man  gets  up  and 
speaks  with  considerable  power  and  fluency  until  the  Speaker's  hammer  knocks 
him  down.  Then  gets  up  a  Southern  man,  and  he  speaks  with  more  warmth. 
He  is  nearer  the  sun,  and  he  comes  out  against  the  North.  He  speaks  his 
hour,  and  is  in  turn,  knocked  down.  And  so  it  has  gone  on  until  I  have  got 
140  speeches  on  my  list."  "Well,"  said  I,  "where  are  they  ?  and  what  are 
they  ? "  "  If  the  speaker,"  said  he,  "  was  a  Northern  man,  he  held  forth 
against  slavery ;  and  if  he  was  from  the  South,  he  abused  the  North  ;  and  all 
those  speeches  were  sent  by  the  members  to  their  own  localities,  where  they 
were  the  cause  of  the  local  irritation  which  existed  at  the  time.  No  man  read 
both  sides.  In  this  way  the  other  side  of  the  question  was  not  heard ;  no  man 
read  both  sides."  I  thought  that  in  this  state  of  things  something  was  to  be 
done.  You  cannot  suppose  that  I  was  indifferent  to  the  danger.  I  am  a 
Massachusetts  man,  and  know  what  Massachusetts  used  to  be.  I  am  a  Massa- 


17 

chusetts  man.  Massachusetts  has  kept  me  a  great  while  in  Congress.  I  will 
honor  her;  I  respect  her,  and  mean  to  do  so  as  long  as  I  live.  (Applause.) 

Well,  gentlemen,  suppose  that  on  that  occasion  I  had  taken  a  different  course 
from  what  I  did  take?  If  I  may  allude  to  anything  so  insignificant  as  myself, 
suppose  that,  on  the  7th  of  March,  instead  of  making  a  speech  that  would,  as 
far  as  my  power  went,  reconcile  the  country,  I  had  joined  in  the  general  clamor 
of  the  party?  Suppose  I  had  said,  "I  will  have  nothing  to  do  with  any  ac 
commodation  ;  we  will  admit  no  satisfaction  ;  we  will  let  Texas  invade  New 
Mexico ;  we  will  leave  New  Mexico  and  Utah  to  take  care  of  themselves, 
and  we  will  plant  ourselves  on  the  Wilmot  Proviso,  and  let  the  devil  take  the 
hindermost  ?  Now,  gentlemen,  I  don't  mean  to  say  that  great  consequences 
would  have  followed  from  that ;  but  suppose  I  had  taken  such  a  course  ?  How 
could  I  be  blamed  for  it  ?  Was  I  not  a  Massachusetts  man  ?  Did  I  not  know 
Massachusetts  sentiments  and  prejudices?  But  what  of  that?  I  am  an 
American  !  (Great  applause.)  I  was  made  a  whole  man,  and  I  don't  mean  to- 
make  myself  half  a  one.  (Tremendous  outbursts  of  applause.)  I  felt  I  had  a 
duty  to  perform  to  my  country,  to  my  own  reputation  ;  for  I  flattered  myself 
that  a  service  of  forty  years  had  given  me  some  character.  I  thought  it  was 
my  duty,  and  I  did  not  care  what  was  to  be  the  consequence ;  I  felt  it  was  my 
duty  to  come  out,  to  go  for  my  country,  and  my  whole  country,  and  to  exert 
any  power  I  had  to  keep  that  country  together.  (Great  applause.)  I  cared 
for  nothing,  I  was  afraid  of  nothing,  but  meant  to  do  my  duty.  Duty  perform 
ed  makes  a  man  happy ;  duty  neglected  makes  a  man  unhappy.  I  therefore, 
gentlemen,  in  the  face  of  all  circumstances,  and  all  dangers,  was  ready  to  go 
forth  and  do  what  T  thought  my  country,  your  country  demanded  of  me.  And, 
gentlemen,  allow  me  to  say  here,  to-day,  that  if  the  fate  of  John  Rogers  had 
been  presented  to  me;  if  I  had  seen  the  stake;  if  I  had  heard  the  thorns  al 
ready  crackling  ;  by  the  blessing  of  Almighty  God,  I  would  have  gone  on,  and 
discharged  the  duty  which  I  thought  my  country  called  upon  me  to  perform. 
I  would  have  become  a  martyr  to  save  that  country. 

And  now,  gentlemen,  farewell.  Live  and  be  happy.  Live  like  patriots. 
Live  like  Americans.  Live  in  the  enjoyments  of  the  inestimable  blessings 
which  your  fathers  prepared  for  you  ;  and  if  anything  that  I  may  do  hereafter 
should  be  inconsistent,  in  the  slightest  degree,  with  the  opinions  and  principles 
which  I  have  this  day  addressed  to  you,  then  discard  me  forever  from  your 
recollection. 


18 


MR.  WEBSTER'S  SPEECH 

AT   THB 

DINNER    GIVEN    HIM    AT    BUFFALO. 

MR.  MAYOR  and  Fellow-Citizens  of  the  city  of  Buffalo,  I  know  that,  in  re 
gard  to  the  present  condition  of  the  country,  you  think  as  I  think,  that  there 
is  but  one  all-absorbing  question,  and  that  is  the  preservation  of  this  Union. 
(Cheers.) 

Mr.  Mayor  and  Gentlemen  :  If  I  have  strength,  I  propose  to  say  something 
to  you  and  your  fellow  citizens  on  that  subject  to-morrow,  (Outbursts  of  ap 
plause  for  some  time.)  In  this  social  interview  and  intercourse,  gentlemen,  I 
would  not  willingly  aspire  to  such  a  lofty,  all-important  theme.  I  desire, 
rather,  on  this  occasion,  to  address  you  as  citizens  of  Buffalo,  many  of  whom  I 
have  had  the  pleasure  of  seeing  in  former  times,  many  of  whom  belong  to  the 
generation,  which  has  grown  up  since  I  was  first  here  ;  but  with  all  of  whom  I 
feel  a  sympathy  for  the  great  prosperity  which  has  distinguished  their  city,  and 
the  fair  prospect  which  Providence  holds  out  before  them.  (Applause.) 
Gentlemen,  I  have  had.  the  pleasure  of  being  in  the  good  city  of  Buffalo  three 
times  before  this  visit.  I  came  here  in  1825,  with  my  family,  accompanied  by 
Justice  Story  and  his  family.  We  came  mainly  to  see  that  all-attractive 
neighbor  of  yours,  the  Falls  of  Niagara.  For,  gentlemen,  you  and  your  pos 
terity  will  never  be  without  a  distinguished  neighbor  in  your  vicinity.  We 
came  to  Buffalo.  I  remember  it  was  said,  at  that  time,  there  were  2500  peo 
ple  in  it.  (Laughter.)  Even  that  startled,  because  it  was  fresh  in  my  recol 
lection  when  it  was  only  a  waste,  and  when,  as  a  member  of  Congress,  I  was 
called  upon  to  ascertain  the  value  of  certain  houses  which  were  destroyed  by 
the  assaults  of  the  British.  I  came  here  afterwards,  gentlemen,  in  1833. 
Your  city  then  had  enlarged,  manufactories  had  commenced,  prosperity  had 
.'begun.  I  had  the  pleasure  of  addressing  you  or  your  fathers,  or  both,  in  the 
Park,  and  I  remember  I  was  told,  among  other  things,  that  I  might  say,  with 
safety,  that  there  were  fifteen  or  eighteen  steamboats  on  Lake  Erie.  (Laugh 
ter  and  applause.)  And  I  remember  another  thing,  gentlemen,  and  I  hope 
some  parties  to  that  transaction  are  here. 

The  mechanics  of  Buffalo  did  me  the  great  honor,  of  tendering  to  me  a  pre 
sent  of  an  article  of  furniture,  made  from  a  great,  glorious  black-walnut  tree, 
which  grew  to  the  south  of  us.  They  signified  their  desire  to  make  a  table 
out  of  that  walnut  tree,  and  send  it  to  me.  The  table  was  made,  and  I  accept 
ed  it  of  course,  with  great  pleasure.  When  I  left  here*  in  July,  the  tree  was 
standing ;  and  in  about  five  weeks  there  was  an  elegant  table,  of  beautiful 
workmanship,  sent  to  my  house,  which  was  then  in  Boston.  When  I  went  to 
Marshfield  it  followed  me  to  the  sea-side,  and  there  it  stands  now  in  the  best 
room  in  my  house,  and  there  it  will  stand  as  long  as  I  live,  and  I  hope  as  long 
as  the  house  shall  stand.  (Great  applause.)  And  I  take  this  occasion  to  re- 
sterate  my  thanks  for  that  beautiful  present.  (Applause.)  I  am  proud  to 
show  it ;  I  am  proud  to  possess  it ;  I  am  proud  in  all  the  recollections  that  it 
aggests.  (Applause.)  I  was  again  in  Buffalo  some  fourteen  years  ago,  on 


19 

my  return  from  the  West.  That,  I  think,  was  in  July  also.  I  left  the  sea- 
coast  in  May.  It  was  soon  after  the  termination  of  General  Jackson's  admin 
istration,  and  the  commencement  of  Mr.  Van  Buren's.  I  recollect  I  travelled 
by  the  way  of  the  Pennsylvania  Railroad  and  Canals,  and  so  on  to  the  Ohio ; 
and  I  was  on  the  Ohio  River,  I  think,  at  Wheeling,  on  the  25th  of  May,  when 
we  heard  of  the  failure  of  all  the  Banks,  the  breaking  up  of  all  the  credit  of 
the  country,  and  Mr.  Van  Buren's  proclamation  for  an  extra  session  of  Con 
gress.  That  rather  hastened  our  progress.  I  went  by  the  way  of  Kentucky, 
Missouri,  Illinois,  and  had  the  pleasure  of  seeing  my  fellow-citizens  of  Buffalo 
on  my  return.  Now,  gentlemen,  it  is  a  great  pleasure  for  me  to  say,  that  be 
tween  that  time  and  the  present,  the  population  of  your  city  has  augmented  at 
least  one-half.  (Applause.)  And  here  is  Buffalo,  a  city  of  50,000  inhabi 
tants. 

It  is,  undoubtedly,  one  of  the  wonders  of  the  age,  and  of  this  country.  I 
enjoy  it,  gentlemen,  with  a  degree  of  pleasure  inferior  only  to  your  own,  be 
cause  we  are  of  the  same  country,  because  we  participate  in  the  same  destiny, 
and  because  we  are  bound  to  the  same  fate  for  good  or  evil.  (Great 
cheering.)  All  that  is  my  interest  is  your  interest,  at  least  I  feel  it  to  be  so ; 
and  there  is  not  in  this  region,  or  beyond  the  Lakes,  a  city  planned,  a  tree 
felled,  a  field  of  wheat  planted,  or  any  other  mark  of  prosperity,  in  which  I, 
for  one,  do  not  take  an  interest.  But  then,  gentlemen,  one  thing  strikes  me. 
You  are  all  a  young  race  here.  (Cheers.)  Here  is  my  friend  near  me. 
(Pointing  to  Hon.  Albert  H.  Tracy.)  We  were  young  men  together.  It 
seems  to  me  but  a  short  time  ago,  and  here  we  are.  (Applause.)  Now,  who 
do  I  see  around  me  here  ?  Why.  the  rising  generation  have  taken  possession 
of  Buffalo.  (Applause.)  Ye  fathers,  be  frightened  !  Ye  grandfathers,  be 
alarmed!  The  youth  of  Buffalo  have  taken  possession  of  the  city.  (Applause.) 
But  then,  you  unmarried  women  of  Buffalo,  and  you,  young  wives  of  Buffalo, 
be  neither  frightened  nor  alarmed ;  for  those  who  have  taken  possession  will 
be  your  protectors.  (Laughter.)  And  I  believe  that  this  is  true  throughout  the 
whole  county  of  Erie.  The  strong  arms  of  young  men  till  the  soil.  The 
vigorous  resolution  which  takes  hold  of  any  improvement,  and  sustains  every 
public  project,  takes  council,  no  doubt,  from  age  and  experience  ;  but  young 
men  in  this  country  push  forward  everything ;  complete  everything. 

Gentlemen,  I  need  not  say  that  this  great  neighborhood  of  yours,  and  this 
great  State  of  yours,  are  full  of  things  most  striking  to  the  eye  and  to  the  im 
agination.  The  spectacle  which  your  State  presents  ;  the  waters  of  New  York  ; 
the  natural  phenomena  of  New  York  ;  are  exciting  to  a  very  high  degree. 
There  is  this  noble  river,  the  Niagara ;  the  noble  Lake  from  which  it  issues ; 
the  Falls  of  Niagara,  the  wonder  of  the  world !  the  lakes  and  waters  of  a 
secondary  class.  Why,  how  many  things  are  there  in  this  great  State  of  New 
York,  that  attract  the  wonder  and  draw  the  attention  of  Europe  ?  I  had  the 
pleasure  of  being  a  few  weeks  in  Europe,  and  every  one  asked  me  how  long  it 
took  to  go  to  Niagara  Falls,  and  how  long  to  see  other  curiosities.  New  York 
in  all  its  relations,  in  its  falls,  its  rivers,  and  secondary  waters,  is  attractive  to 
all  the  world.  But  then  there  is  New  York,  in  the  State  of  New  York. 
Gentlemen,  the  commercial  character  so  far  pervades  the  minds  of  commercial 
men  all  over  the  world,  that  there  are  many  men  who  are  very  respectable 
and  intelligent,  who  do  not,  seem  to  know  there  is  any  part  of  the  United  States 
but  New  York.  (Laughter.)  I  was  in  England,  and  when  I  was  there  it 
was  asked  of  me,  if  I  did  not  come  from  New  York.  (Great  laughter.)  I 
told  them  that  my  wife  came  from  New  York.  (Continued  laughter.)  That 
is  something.  (Great  laughter.)  Well,  gentlemen,  I  had  the  honor,  one  day, 
to  be  invited  to  a  State-dinner,  by  the  Lord  Mayor  of  London.  He  was  a 
portly  and  a  corpulent  gentleman.  (Laughter.)  e  had  a  big  wig  on  his 


20 

head,  all  powdered  and  ribboned  down  behind,  and  I  had  the  honor  to  sit  be 
tween  him  and  the  lady  Mayoress  ;  and  there  were  300  guests,  with  all  the 
luxuries  and  gorgeousness  of  the  Lord  Mayqr's  dinner.  By  and  by,  in  the 
course  of  the  proceedings,  his  lordship  thought  proper,  soon  after  the  cloth  was 
removed,  to  take  notice  of  his  American  guest.  He  seemed  not  to  know  who 
I  was.  He  knew  1  was  a  Senator;  but  of  the  United  States  he  seemed  ta 
have  but  little  idea  of  any  place  but  New  York.  (Laughter.) 

He  arose  :  "  Gentlemen,"  said  he,  "  I  give  you  the  health  of  Mr.  Webster, 
a  member  of  the  upper  Senate  of  New  York."  (Great  outburst  of  laughter.) 
Well,  gentlemen,  it  was  a  great  honor  to  be  a  member  of  any  Senate  of  New 
York,  but  if  there  was  an  upper  Senate,  to  be  a  member  of  that  would  be  a 
great  honor,  indeed.  (Tremendous  laughter.)  Gentlemen,  New  York,  the 
State  of  New  York,  let  me  indulge  in  a  moment's  refection  on  that  great 
theme  !  It  has  so  happened  in  the  dispensation  of  things,  that  New  York 
stretches  from  boundary  to  boundary,  through  our  whole  country.  Your  fel 
low-citizens,  to-day,  are  eating  clams  at  Montauk  Point,  700  miles  from  here, 
and  you  are  regaling  on  lake  trout.  You  stretch  along  and  divide  the  whole 
country.  New  York  stretches  from  the  frontier  of  Canada  to  the  sea.  New 
York  divides  the  Southern  States  from  the  Eastern.  Here  she  is  with  two 
heads ;  one  down  at  New  York,  and  the  other  at  Buffalo,  like  a  double-headed 
snake,  and  there  she  lies.  Weil,  what  are  you  to  do  with  her?  Fixed,  firm, 
and  immovable,  there  she  is.  (Applause.)  It  has  pleased  God,  in  assign 
ing  her  a  position  in  the  configuration  of  the  earth's  surface,  to  cause  her  to 
divide  the  whole  South  from  the  East,  and  she  does  so,  physically  and  geo 
graphically.  As  she  stretches  here,  in  the  whole  length  and  breadth,  she  Di 
vides  the  Southern  from  the  Eastern  States.  But,  gentlemen,  that  is  her  in 
ferior  destiny,  her  inferior  characteristic  ;  for,  if  I  do  not  mistake  all  auguries, 
her  higher  destiny  is  likewise  to  unite  all  the  States  in  .one  political  Union. 
(Vociferous  applause  and  cheers.) 

Gentlemen,  nothing  so  fills  my  imagination,  or  comes  up  more  to  my  idea  of 
a  great,  enterprising,  and  energetic  State,  than  those  things  which  have  been 
accomplished  by  New  York,  connected  with  commerce  and  internal  improve 
ments.  I  honor  you  for  it.  When  I  consider  that  your  canal  runs  from  the 
Lakes  to  tide- water  ;  when  I  consider  also  that  you  have  a  railroad  from  the 
Lake  to  tide-water;  and  when  I  examine,  as  I  have  examined,  that  stupend 
ous  work,  hung  up,  as  it  were,  in  the  air,  on  the  southern  range  of  mountains 
from  New  York  to  Lake  Erie  ;  when  I  consider  the  energy,  the  power,  the 
indomitable  resolution  which  effected  all  this,  I  bow  with  reverence  to  the 
genius  and  people  of  New  York,  whatever  political  party  may  lead,  or  how 
ever  wrong  I  may  deem  any  of  them  to  act  in  other  respects.  It  takes  care 
of  itself,  it  is  true  to  itself,  it  is  true  to  New  York  ;  and  being  true  to  itself,  it 
goes  far  in  establishing  the  interest  of  the  whole  country,  in  my  opinion.  For 
one,  I  wish  it  so  to  proceed.  I  know  that  there  are  questions  of  a  local  and 
State  character  with  which  I  have  nothing  to  do.  I  know  there  is  a  proposi 
tion  to  make  this  canwl  of  yours  greater  and  broader,  if  I  may  say  so,  to  give 
to  New  York  and  its  commerce  more  power  to  let  out  what  it  has,  with  great 
er  facility.  I  know  not  how  that  may  comport  with  State  politics  or  State  ar 
rangements,  but  I  shall  be  happy  to  see  the  day,  when  there  shall  be  no  ob 
struction,  or  hindrance,  in  any  article  of  trade,  or  commerce,  going  out  right, 
straight  and  strong,  with  breadth  enough,  and  margin  enough,  and  room  enough 
to  carry  all  to  its  market.  May  I  say,  gentlemen,  that  a  broad,  deep,  and  am 
ple  canal  realizes,]  and  more  than  realizes,  what  the  poet  has  said  of  the 
River  Thames : 


21 

"  Oh,  could  I  flow  like  thee,  and  make  thy  stream 
My  great  example,  as  it  is  my  theme ! 
Though  deep,  yet  clear,  though  gentle,  yet  not  dull, 
Strong  without  rage,  without  o'erflowing,  full." 

But,  gentlemen,  there  are  other  things  about  this  State  of  yours.  You  are 
here  at  the  foot  of  Lake  Erie.  You  look  out  on  the  far  expanse  of  the  West. 
Who  have  come  here  ?  Of  whom  are  you  composed  ?  You  are  already  a 
people  of  fifty  thousand,  a  larger  population  than  that  of  any  New  England 
city,  except  Boston  ;  and  yet  you  are  but  of  yesterday.  What  is  your  popula 
tion  ?  A  great  many  of  them  are  my  countrymen,  and  I  see  them  with  plea 
sure  ;  but  these  are  not  all,  there  are  also  Irish  and  Germans.  I  suppose  on 
the  whole,  and  in  the  main,  they  are  safe  citizens  ;  at  any  rate,  they  appear 
well  disposed,  and  they  constitute  a  large  portion  of  your  population.  That 
leads  us  to  consider  generally  what  is  the  particular  position  of  our  country, 
and  of  your  city,  as  one  of  the  great  outlets  to  the  West,  in  regard  to  this  for 
eign  immigration.  The  emigration  to  this  country  is  enormous — it  comes  from 
Ireland,  Germany,  Switzerland,  &c.  I  remember  it  used  to  be  a  simile,  when 
anything  of  a  sudden  or  energetic  nature  took  place,  to  say  that  it  u  broke  out 
like  an  Irish  rebellion,  forty  thousand  strong,  when  nobody  expected  it." 
Forty  thousand  strong  does  not  begin  to  compare  with  the  emigration  to  the 
United  States.  Emigration  comes  here  with  a  perfect  rush  from  every  part 
of  Ireland  ;  from  Limerick  and  the  Shannon,  from  Dublin  and  from  Cork  ; 
emigrants  come  also  from  the  Northern  ports,  from  Londonderry  and  Belfast, 
and  here  they  are.  Into  this  country  they  come,  and  will  continue  to  come  ; 
it  is  in  the  order  of  things,  and  there  is  no  possibility  of  preventing  it.  Gen 
tlemen,  it  is  about  three  centuries  and  a  half  since  Columbus  discovered  Amer 
ica,  and  he  came  here  by  authority  of  the  Spanish  Government.  He  gathered 
up  some  gold,  and  went  back  with  a  great  name.  It  is  a  much  shorter  time 
since  the  Irish  discovered  America,  and  they  come  in  much  greater  numbers  ; 
but  they  don't  come  here  with  the  idea  of  carrying  back  money,  or  fame,  or  a 
name,  but  mean  to  live  here  forever,  They  come  to  remain  among  us,  and  to 
be  of  us,  and  to  take  their  chances  among  us.  Let  them  come. 

There  are  also  Germans.  Your  city,  I  am  told,  has  a  very  large  number 
of  thrifty,  industrious  German  people.  Let  them  also  come.  If  His  Majesty 
of  Austria,  arid  the  Austrian  Government,  will  allow  them  to  come,  let  them 
come.  (Great  applause.)  All  we  desire,  whosoever  come,  is,  that  they  will 
Americanize  themselves ;  that,  forgetting  the  things  that  are  behind,  they  will 
look  forward  ;  and  if  they  look  as  far  as  Iowa  and  Minnesota,  they  will  not 
look  a  rod  too  far.  I  know  that  many  from  Europe  come  here,  who  have  been 
brought  up  to  different  pursuits,  to  different  forms  of  application,  and  even  to 
different  systems  of  agriculture  ;  but,  as  a  general  thing,  I  believe  it  is  true, 
that  when  they  are  removed  from  the  temptations  of  the  cities  of  the  Atlantic 
coast,  and  when  they  get  into  regions,  where  trees  are  to  be  felled,  and  land 
cleared,  they  prove  themselves  worthy  and  respectable  citizens  ;  and,  perhaps, 
gentlemen,  you  will  excuse  me  if,  without  too  long  a  speech,  I  say  a  little  re 
lative  to  our  American  system  on  this  subject  of  foreign  emigration.  In  the 
Declaration  of  Independence,  declared,  as  you  all  know,  on  the  4th  of  July, 
1776,  a  solemn  and  formal  complaint  is  made  against  the  British  King,  that 
he  sought  to  prevent  emigration  from  Europe  to  the  colonies,  by  refusing  his 
assent  to  reasonable  laws  of  naturalization,  by  reason  of  which,  it  was  slated, 
the  country  did  not  fill  up,  and  the  public  lands  were  not  purchased.  It  is 
worthy  the  attention  of  any  gentleman,  who  wishes  to  acquaint  himself  with 
the  early  history  of  the  country  in  this  respect,  to  refer  back  to  the  naturaliza 
tion  laws  passed  in  the  time  of  Washington.  P^very  one  can  see  what  was  the 
prevailing  idea  at  that  period.  The  idea  of  encouraging  emigration  from  Eu- 


22 

rope  was  universal,  and  it  was  desired  that  those,  who  wished  to  become  nat 
uralized,  should  become  acquainted  with  our  system  of  government  before  they 
voted  ;  that  they  should  have  an  interest  in  the  country  ;  that  they  might  not 
be  led  away  by  every  designing  demagogue.  At  that  day,  nobody  foresaw  such 
developments,  arid  such  enlargement  in  the  commerce  of  the  country,  as  we 
now  see  ;  and,  therefore,  in  the  early  periods  of  Washington's  administration, 
they  were  looking  to  see  how  they  should  pay  the  debt  of  the  Revolution. 
Whatever  we  may  think  of  it  now,  their  great  resource  to  pay  their  debts  was, 
as  they  thought,  the  public  domain.  They  had  obtained,  before  the  Constitu 
tion  was  formed,  a  grant  of  the  Northwest  Territory,  which  was  known  to  be 
capable  of  furnishing  great  products  by  agricultural  labor.  The  Congress  of 
that  day  looked  to  this.  They  had  no  idea  how  sudden  would  be  the  great  in 
crease  of  our  commerce,  or  how  plentiful  would  be  the  revenue  from  that 
source;  and,  therefore,  their  main  resource  was  to  see  how  far  they  could  en 
courage  foreign  emigration,  (which  it  was  expected  would  bring  capital  into 
the  country.)  with  an  idea  of  such  a  conformity  with  our  American  system,  and 
to  American  institutions,  as  would  render  emigration  safe,  and  not  dangerous 
to  the  common  weal. 

Gentlemen,  we  are  not  arbiters  of  our  own  fate.  Human  foresight  falters 
and  fails.  Who  could  foresee  or  conjecture  at  that  day,  what  our  eyes  now 
see  and  behold  ?  We  see  this  for  good  or  for  evil.  Nor  could  we  stay  this 
immigration  if  we  would.  We  see  there  is  a  rush  of  people  from  Europe  to 
America,  that  exceeds,  in  a  single  month,  and  at  the  single  port  of  New  York, 
the  population  of  many  single  cities  on  the  Atlantic  coast.  This  is  the  case, 
and  it  is  to  be  met  and  to  be  considered.  It  would  be  foolish  to  attempt  to  ob 
struct  it,  if  obstruction  were  safe.  The  thing  can't  be  done.  You  may  re 
member,  gentlemen,  (though  I  am  too  modest  to  suppose  that  you  remember 
much  about  it,)  that,  in  my  correspondence  with  Lord  Ashburton,  who  came 
out  here  to  negotiate  the  Treaty  of  '42,  we  examined  the  subject  of  the  im 
pressment  of  American  citizens.  Up  to  that  day,  England  had  insisted  on  the 
right  to  visit  every  American  ship  in  the  time  of  war,  and  if  she  found  any 
Englishmen,  Irishmen,  or  Welshmen  on  board  of  her,  to  press  them  into  her 
service,  on  the  ground  that  they  could  not  transfer  their  allegiance.  I  need 
not  say,  gentlemen,  that  this  subject  had  been  a  matter  of  negotiation.  It  was, 
at  one  time,  suggested  by  the  British  minister,  that  the  right  should  be  exer 
cised  only  in  certain  latitudes.  At  anofher  time  it  was  suggested,  that  this 
right  should  not  be  extended  to  the  deprivation  of  any  American  vessel  of  her 
crew.  I  am  afraid,  or  ashamed,  gentlemen,  indeed  I  don't  know  that  I  ought 
to  say  it,  but  with  your  permission  I  will  say  it,  that  on  that  occasion  it  was 
decided  that  every  man  on  board  of  an  American  vessel,  either  mercantile  or 
naval,  was  protected  by  the  flag  of  America.  (Tremendous  applause.)  No 
matter  if  his  speech  did  betray  him  ;  no  matter  what  brogue  was  on  his  tongue  ; 
if  the  stars  and  stripes  were  over  him,  he  was  for  that  purpose,  while  on  board 
an  American  vessel,  an  American  citizen.  (Cheers.)  Well,  gentlemen,  as 
we  are  indulging  in  a  sort  of  saturnalia,  and  as  we  are  talking  of  ourselves  a 
little,  (cries  of  "  Who?  "  u  Go  on,")  let  me  say,  that  from  that  day  to  this,  we 
have  heard  of  no  pretensions  on  the  part  of  the  British  Government,  that  it 
could  send  an  officer  on  board  of  any  American  ship,  and  take  from  her  any 
human  being  whatever,  and  never  shall.  (Great  applause) 

Lord  Ashburton,  with  whom  I  negotiated  and  corresponded  on  that  occasion, 
was  a  judicious  and  wise  man.  He  had  been  a  good  deal  in  this  country.  He 
was  married  in  this  country.  He  knew  something  of  this  country;  and  he  saw- 
various  relations  between  this  country  and  England  in  a  far  more  philanthropi- 
eal  point  of  view  than  most  others,  and  he  stated  in  a  letter,  which  is  on  record 
somewhere :  "  I  must  admit  that  when  a  British  subject,  Irish,  English,  or 


23 

Welsh,  becomes  an  American,  and  claims  no  longer  the  protection  of  his  own 
country,  his  own  country  has  no  right  to  call  him  a  subject,  and  to  put  him  in 
a  position  to  make  war  on  his  adopted  country  ;  and  it  appears  to  me  "  he  added, 
*'  that  we  may  count  it  among  the  dispensations  of  Providence,  that  these  new 
facilities  of  transporting  men  from  country  to  country,  by  the  power  of  steam, 
and  quickly,  are  designed  by  a  high  wisdom."  He  said,  "  We  have  more  peo 
ple  than  land,  and  you  have  more  land  than  people.  Take  as  many  from  us 
as  you  please,  or  as  please  to  come.  That  seems  to  be  the  order  of  things ;  and 
it  is  not  to  be  stopped."  I  told  him  that  was  my  opinion  too.  Gentlemen, 
this  emigration  is  not  to  be  stopped  ;  we  must  keep  things  as  they  are  ;  we 
must  impress  all  who  come  here  with  the  necessity  of  becoming  Americans. 
We  must  teach  them  ;  we  must  endeavor  to  instil  American  sentiments  into 
all  their  bosoms.  (Prolonged  Applause.)  Gentlemen,  if  it  were  not  so  late 
in  the  evening,  I  would  say  a  few  more  words  (cries  of  "Go  on,  Go  on") 
about  the  public  lands  of  this  country,  and  the  best  disposition  to  be  made  of 
them.  What  shall  we  do  with  them  ?  They  amount  to  a  vast  extent  of  ter 
ritory,  rich  in  its  natural  fertility  ;  but  ca-n  any  one  tell  me  what  is  the  value 
of  land  unconnected  with  cultivation  and  social  life  ?  A  thousand  acres  would 
not  in  such  a  case,  be  of  the  value  of  a  dollar.  What  is  land  worth  in  the 
extreme  interior  ?  Land  is  a  theatre  for  the  application  and  exhibition  of  hu 
man  labor  ;  and  when  human  labor  goes  upon  it,  and  is  exerted,  then  it  creates 
its  value,  and  without  it,  it  is  not  worth  a  rush,  from  "  Dan  to  Beersheba."  I 
do  not  wish  to  say,  on  every  acre  of  land  there  must  be  a  settlement ;  but  there 
must  be  human  labor  somewhere  near  it ;  there  must  be  something  besides 
the  mathematical  division  apportioning  it  into  sections,  half  sections,  and  quarter 
sections,  before  land  is  of  any  value  whatever. 

But,  gentlemen,  we  have  had  a  series  of  wonderful  events  in  our  commer* 
cial  relations.  The  commerce  of  the  country  is  filling  the  coffers  of  the  coun 
try.  It  has  supplied,  and  now  supplies,  every  want  of  the  government.  What, 
then,  shall  we  do  with  the  public  lands  ?  During  the  last  Congress,  acts  were 
passed,  distributing  large  quantites  of  them,  varying  from  160  acres,  or  more, 
down  to  40  acres,  to  those  who  had  rendered  military  service  to  the  country. 
This  was  all  very  well;  nobody  goes  further  than  I  do,  in  desiring  to  make 
happy  those  who  have  borne  arms  in  their  country's  cause,  as  well  as  their 
widows  and  orphans ;  but,  this  does  not  appear  to  me  to  answer  the  exigencies 
of  the  case.  What  is  to  be  done  ?  What  is  to  become  of  those  who  come  to 
this  country,  and  have  nothing  to  buy  land  with  ?  That's  the  question,  gentle 
men  ;  the  last  measure  proposed  by  me  while  in  the  last  Congress,  was  the 
short  and  simple  proposition,  that  every  man  of  twenty-one  years  of  age,  who 
would  go  on  any  uncultivated  land  in  the  country,  and  take  up  160  acres  and 
cultivate  it  for  five  years,  should  thereby  make  it  his  own,  and  there  to  be  an  end 
of  the  public  right ;  and  if  his  widow  and  children  did  the  same,  they  should 
have  it.  One  of  the  great  evils  of  this  military  bounty  business  is,  that  when 
warrants  are  issued,  manage  it  as  you  will,  they  fall  into  the  hands  of  specula 
tors,  and  do  not  accrue  to  those  whom  it  was  designed  to  benefit.  They  sell 
for  a  trifle,  and  they  fall  into  the  hands  of  speculators,  as  I  have  already 
stated.  Let  me  tell  you  an  anecdote  on  this  subject :  I  brought  forward 
this  matter  in  the  Senate  of  the  United  States,  and  soon  afterwards  I  received 
a  letter  from  Europe,  stating  that  it  was  wrong  and  unjust,  because  it  would 
interfere  with  the  rights  of  those  who  had  purchased  warrants,  to  settle  on  the 
public  lands,  as  a  matter  of  speculation.  (Laughter.)  I  wrote  back  that  it 
was  just  the  thing  I  wished.  I  was  glad  it  was  so,  and  I  had  desired  it  should 
be  so.  My  proposition  was,  that  these  lands  should  not  be  alienated  ;  that 
they  should  be  free  of  claims  for  debt ;  that  they  should  be  free  of  debt ;  that 


24 

they  should  not  be  transferable,  and  if  a  man  left  his  land  before  five  jears, 
he  should  lose  it. 

My  proposition  was,  that  the  lands  granted  under  it  should  not  be  alienable  ; 
should  not  be  subject  to  alienation  by  law  ;  that  a  man  entering  upon  should  stay 
upon,  should  cultivate  it  for  five  years  ;  or  if  he  should  not  live,  then  his  wile  or 
children  should  remain  upon  it  for  the  specified  term  of  five  years,  when  it  should 
be  theirs  forever.  My  object  was  simply,  as  far  the  object  could  be  accomplished, 
to  benefit  those  of  the  Northern  States  who  were  landless,  and  the  thousands  of 
the  Southern  States,  who  were  willing  to  toil  if  they  had  anything  of  their  own  to 
toil  upon.  It  was  to  benefit  the  emigrant,  by  giving  him  a  home  ;  to  let  him 
feel  that  he  had  a  homestead ;  that  he  trod  upon  his  own  soil ;  that  he  was  a 
man,  a  freeholder.  On  his  own  good  behavior  he  must  rely  to  make  up  all 
else  to  which  he  would  aspire.  I  might  have  been  wrong  in  my  opinions,  but 
they  are  my  opinions  still ;  and  if  ever  an  opportunity  is  given  me,  I  shall  en 
deavor  to  carry  them  out. 

Well,  gentlemen,  I  revert  once  more  to  your  great  State.  I  see  all  her 
works,  all  her  gigantic  improvements,  the  respectability  of  her  Government. 
I  hear  of  her  greatness  over  the  whole  world.  Your  merchants  have  a  char 
acter  everywhere,  which  realizes  the  idea  of  my  youth  of  the  character  of  a 
British  merchant,  which  I  will  illustrate  by  an  anecdote.  A  friend  of  mine, 
in  the  days  of  the  French  Republic,  had  so  much  confidence  in  the  men  who 
stood  at  the  head  of  affairs,  that  he  invested  largely  in  Assignats.  But  after  a 
while  he  found  them  to  be  worthless.  His  creditors  would  not  touch  them  ; 
and  there  they  were,  dead  upon  his  hands.  One  day,  after  using  some  very 
extravagant  language,  he  concluded  by  saying,  "  that  if  he  were  traveling  in 
the  deserts  of  Arabia,  and  his  camel  should  kick  up  a  British  bill  of  exchange 
out  of  the  sands,  it  would  be  worth  ten  per  cent,  premium,  while  these  Gov 
ernment  Assignats  were  not  worth  a  farthing."  So  your  commercial  character 
stands.  Your  vessels  traverse  every  sea,  and  fill  all  the  rivers.  You  call 
commerce  to  you  and  she  comes.  You  call  her  from  the  vasty  deep,  and  she 
responds  to  your  call. 

But,  gentlemen,  I  will  conclude  by  offering  a  sentiment,  for  I  am  sure  you 
are  anxious  to  hear  from  others,  from  whom  I  have  too  long  detained  you. 

The  State  of  New  York :     Not  the  envy,  but  the  admiration  of  her  sister  States. 

It  is  needless  to  say  that  Mr.  Webster  was  greeted  throughout  with  repeated 
applause,  and  resumed  his  seat  amidst  long  continued  and  enthusiastic  cheers. 


SPEECH  AT  SYRACUSE. 

FELLOW  CITIZENS  of  Syracuse,  Ladies  and  Gentlemen,  I  thank  you  cor 
dially  for  the  pains  you  have  taken  to  meet  together  this  afternoon,  forming  so 
broad  an  assemblage,  to  welcome  me  to  your  important  and  growing  city  of 
Syracuse. 

I  have  known  this  place,  by  occasional  visits,  for  many  years ;  some  of  those 
visits  were  made  before  you,  whose  happy  faces  I  see  before  me,  were  born,  or 
when  you  were  in  infancy.  I  have  watched  its  progress  with  interest,  connect 
ed  as  it  has  been  with  the  interest  of  the  great  saline  product  of  the  State,  and 
as  the  capital  of  the  noble  County  of  Onondaga,  which  I  have  always  regarded 
with  admiration. 

Ladies  and  Gentlemen,  The  President  and  his  friends  were  invited,  three 
weeks  auo,  to  attend  the  celebration  of  the  completion  of  that  great  line  of 
communication,  the  Erie  Railroad.  We  left  Washington  with  no  other  pur 
pose,  certainly  none  on  my  part,  than  to  perform  that  agreeable  duty.  I  had 
not  the  slightest  expectation  of  being  here,  nor  had  I  the  slightest  idea,  or  wrish, 
of  being  called  upon  to  address  you,  or  any  other  body  of  citizens  of  the  United 
States,  upon  the  political  topics  of  the  day. 

Ladies  and  Gentlemen,  my  time  of  life  for  such  public  discourses  and  illus 
trations  may  be  considered  as  pretty  muoh  over.  There  is  a  time  for  all 
things,  and  there  has  been  a  time  when  it  was  not  unpleasant  to  rne  to  meet 
masses  of  ladies  arid  gentlemen  in  the  open  air,  and  to  speak  upon  topics  which 
were  riot  disagreeable  to  them,  and  certainly  not  to  me.  But  there  must  come 
a  time,  as  we  advance  in  life  and  age,  when  what  we  do  for  the  public  must 
be  more  in  the  closet,  and  less  in  the  field. 

Nevertheless,  Ladies  and  Gentlemen,  a  large  number  of  the  people  of  Syra 
cuse  having  signified  to  me,  by  letter,  that  it  was  their  desire  that  I  should  meet 
them  to  day,  and  address  them  on  public  subjects,  as  far  as  may  be  in  my  power, 
I  gladly  conform  to  their  request. 

On  the  great  question  of  the  day,  my  fellow  citizens,  I  have  no  secrets.  I 
have  nothing  to  conceal  and  nothing  to  boast  of.  1  trust  that  all  of  you  know 
pretty  well  who  I  am,  and  what  I  am,  and  what  my  principles  of  political  con 
duct  have  been  for  the  last  thirty  years.  They  are  not  likely  to  be  changed; 
and  it  is  not  likely  that  any  earthly  inducement  will  prevail  upon  me  to  depart 
from  those  settled  notions  and  opinions  which  I  imbibed  in  early  life,  which  I 
have  followed  in  the  councils  of  this  country,  for  good  or  for  evil,  for  thirty 
years,  and  the  correctness  of  which  my  judgment  approves  more  and  more 
every  day  of  my  life. 

Ladies  and  Gentlemen, — I  know  very  well  that  on  the  agitating  questions  of 
the  present  day,  I  have  not  the  happiness  to  concur  with  all  the  people  of 
Syracuse,  or  the  county  of  Onondaga,  or  other  parts  of  the  State  of  New  York. 
I  know  there  are  varieties  of  sentiments,  and  I  know  the  sources  of  that  disa 
greement.  Some  of  them  are  very  justifiable,  and  some  of  them.  I  am  sorry 
to  believe,  are  not  capable  of  much  defence.  But  I  know  there  are  differences 
of  feeling  brought  about  by  differences  of  association,  by  different  reading,  and 
by  different  degrees  of  knowledge  and  information  respecting  public  affairs. 

But,  since  I  am  requested  to  address  you,  you  must  take  from  me  the  honest 


26 

sentiments  of  my  own  heart,  the  convictions  of  my  own  conscience.  I  lay  no 
claim  to  your  approval  of  my  views,  and  I  ask  no  favorable  reception  of  them, 
"  farther  than  you  see  the  suggestions  I  make  to  you,  are  worthy  of  your  re 
gard."  You  are  here  in  the  centre,  the  very  centre  of  the  greatest  State  in  the 
Union,  the  place  where  frequently  assemble  representatives  of  all  parties  and 
all  views,  and  you  have  here  all  sorts  of  sentiments  advanced,  all  sorts  of  doc 
trines  espoused,  and  you  have  a  very  fair  opportunity  of  forming  a  judgment, 
a  fair,  conscientious  judgment,  of  all  great  questions  before  the  public. 

Now,  Ladies  and  Gentlemen,  it  is  a  matter  of  notoriety  all  the  world  over, 
and  especially  in  Syracuse,  that  the  origin  of  the  important  questions,  that  for 
two  years  have  agitated  the  country,  is  the  condition  of  the  Southern  States  in 
respect  to  the  institution  of  slavery  in  those  States,  and  the  rights  of  th«  parties 
connected  with  that  institution  in  the  Government  under  which  we  live. 

You  cannot  state,  more  strongly  than  I  feel  to  be  true,  that  this  original, 
ancient,  unhappy  institution  of  the  slavery  of  the  African  races  in  the  Southern 
States,  is  forever  and  ever  to  be  deplored.  It  has  been,  in  the  course  of  our 
history,  as  much  deplored  by  the  Southern  States  as  by  ourselves,  and,  to  sixty 
years  ago,  was  more  deplored  by  them  than  by  us. 

When  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States  was  adopted,  the  Northern 
people  did  not  feel  the  evils  of  slavery,  because  it  was  not  among' them  to  any 
great  or  growing  extent.  The  Sou i  hern  people  did  feel  the  evils,  because  it 
was  among  them ;  and  they  all  thought,  and  all  said,  it  was  an  evil  entailed 
upon  them  by  the  British  Government,  for  which  they  were  full  of  lamenta 
tion  and  regret,  and  if  they  knew  how  to  get  rid  of  it,  they  would  embrace  any 
reasonable  measure  to  accomplish  that  end. 

Such  were  the  feelings  and  such  the  opinions  of  the  principal  men  of  the 
South ;  of  such  men  as  Chancellor  Wythe,  Jefferson,  Mason,  and  other  leading 
men  of  the  South,  who  were  concerned  in  the  formation  of  the  Constitution  of 
the  United  States.  And  if  you,  young  men,  will  look  into  the  history  of  those 
times,  you  will  find  what  I  state  to  be  true,  that  the  Southern  people  were 
more  filled  with  regret  at  the  existence  of  slavery  than  the  Northern  people 
were. 

The  thirteen  were  colonies  originally  of  English  origin,  coming  here  at  dif 
ferent  times,  settling  along  the  coast  under  various  circumstances,  all  united 
by  a  common  origin,  found  themselves  oppressed  by  the  mother  country  in  '75, 
and  in  '76  they  declared  their  independence.  That  was  an  act  of  Unkn  ;  it 
was  a  united  act  of  the  thirteen  colonies  ;  it  was  that  united  act  that  made  us 
free  from  the  dominion  of  England ;  and,  united  under  that  act,  the  colonies 
fought  the  war  of  the  Revolution,  and  afterwards  established  a  common  Gov 
ernment.  There  was  at  that  time  no  more  idea  of  prohibiting  slavery  in  the 
Southern  States,  than  there  was  of  introducing  it  into  the  Northern  States. 
These  domestic  State  institutions,  and  State  establishments,  were  considered  as 
the  proper  subjects  for  the  legislation  of  States  themselves. 

For  purposes  of  general  defence  and  general  welfare,  and  for  purposes  of 
commercial  equality,  and  similar  objects,  the  States  afterwards  agreed  to  be 
come  one  government ;  and  as  to  all  the  rest,  it  was  expressly  agreed  that 
every  State  should  take  care  of  its  own  rights,  and  regulate  itself  in  relation 
thereto  at  its  own  discretion.  Upon  these  principles  we  came  together  under 
the  Constitution  which  was  then  adopted;  and  Washington,  unanimously  cho 
sen  by  all  the  people,  was  our  first  President. 

That  was  before  your  day,  fellow-citizens,  and  before  mine,  but  it  is  a  mat 
ter  of  history;  and  from  it  you  know,  that  this  question  of  the  existence  of 
slavery  in  the  Southern  States  never  became  an  agitating  subject  for  more 
than  fifty  years  afterwards.  For  more  than  fifty  years  the  Northern  States 
never  supposed  that  they  had  any  thing  to  do  with  it;  but  in  process  of  time, 


27 

and  in  the  progress  of  things,  public  sentiment  has  changed  at  the  North 
There  is  now  a  strong  and  animated,  sometimes  an  enthusiastic,  and  sometimes 
a  religious  feeling,  against  the  existence  of  slavery  in  the  South.  But  persons 
entertaining  such  feelings  and  sentiments,  as  I  think,  disregard  the  line  of  their 
own  duties,  and  adventure  upon  fields  which  are  utterly  forbidden. 

Ladies  and  Gentlemen,  there  are  in  this  country  Abolition  Societies  and 
Abolition  Presses  ;  and  it  is  no  new  thing  for  me  to  say,  for  I  said  it  twenty 
years  ago,  and  have  held  the  opinion  ever  since,  that,  in  my  opinion,  all  these 
things  have  prejudiced  the  condition  of  the  slave.  Twenty  years  ago,  a  con 
vention  of  the  whole  people  of  Virginia  was  held,  to  deliberate  on  changing 
her  Constitution,  and  there  was  a  free  discussion  of  the  policy  of  liberating  the 
slaves,  and  of  gradual  emancipation.  The  question  was  freely  and  openly  dis 
cussed,  and  there  was  no  fear,  no  reserve.  I  followed,  in  that  respect,  the  ad 
vice  of  Jefferson,  and  Madison,  and  Marshall,  with  all  of  whom  I  have  con 
versed  upon  this  subject,  and  all  of  whom  desired  to  see  a  way  in  which  the 
gradual  emancipation  of  the  slave  population  of  the  South  might  be  accom 
plished.  And  as  I  said,  twenty  years  ago  that  question  was  freely  and  openly 
discussed  by  Marshall  and  other  persons  at  the  convention  called  by  the  people 
of  Virginia.  Everybody  knew  what  was  going  on,  and  it  was  perfectly  safe 
to  come  out  and  maintain,  as  a  general  proposition,  that  it  would  be  for  the 
benefit  of  the  South  to  provide  for  the  gradual  emancipation  of  the  slaves. 

It  was  about  that  time  that  Abolition  Societies  were  established  in  New- 
England,  and,  in  my  opinion,  they  have  done  nothing  but  mischief;  they  have 
riveted  the  chains  of  every  slave  in  the  Southern  States  ;  they  have  made  their 
masters  jealous  and  fearful,  and  postponed  far  and  far  the  period  of  their  re 
demption.  This  is  my  judgment ;  it  may  not  be  yours. 

Well,  what  has  been  the  consequence  ?  We  have  had  occasions  in  which, 
in  our  political  system,  questions  have  arisen  on  the  extension  of  slave  terri 
tory.  It  arose  in  the  case  of  Texas,  and  nobody  found  me  then  voting  for  the 
addition  of  one  foot  of  slave  territory  to  the  United  States.  Ah  !  even  before 
many  persons  who  now  shout  the  loudest  for  liberty,  knew  what  liberty  was,  I 
declared,  in  the  city  of  New  York  in  1837,  (and  it  has  been  on  record  ever 
since,  and  you  can  all  see  it,)  my  fixed  purpose,  that,  under  no  circumstances, 
and  under  the  pressure  of  no  exigency,  would  I  agree  to  take  Texas  into  this 
country  as  a  slave  State,  or  a  slave  territory.  From  that  position  I  have  not 
departed ;  but  our  good  representatives  in  the  Senate  and  in  the  House  of 
Representatives  from  the  State  of  New  York,  from  the  Empire  State,  voted 
for  the  admission  of  Texas,  while  I  resisted  in  vain. 

I  state  it  not  as  a  reproach,  but  as  a  fact,  that  some  of  the  gentlemen  from 
New  York,  then  distinguished  in  the  houses  of  Congress,  in  spite  of  all  I  could 
say  or  do,  voted  to  bring  Texas,  as  she  was,  into  the  Union,  as  a  slave  State, 
and  with  the  solemn  stipulation  of  the  privilege  of  making  out  of  herself  four 
more  slave  States. 

What  are  they,  and  where  are  they  now  ?  They  are  Free-soilers  of  the 
first  water,  (applause,)  and  they  loudly  denounce  Mr.  Webster.  I  believe  he 
has  been  denounced  here.  Is  not  this  Syracuse  ?  (Great  applause  and  laugh 
ter.)  I  believe  they  hold  conventions  here,  (laughter ;)  they  denounce  Web 
ster  as  the  fit  associate  of  Benedict  Arnold ;  and  Prof.  Stuart,  Dr.  Spencer 
and  Dr.  Lord,  and  Dr.  Dewey,  and  others  of  that  stamp  as  being  no  better. 
(Laughter.)  I  would  be  glad  to  strike  out  Benedict  Arnold ;  and  as  for  tl  e 
rest,  I  am  proud  of  their  company. 

This  is  the  truth  ;  and  before  the  throne  of  God,  and  before  the  tribunal 
of  an  intelligent  people,  there  is  nothing  valuable  but  truth,  truth,  truth.  It  is 
not  glossary  or  commentary,  that  is  valuable  ;  it  is  not  that  thing  called  elo- 


28 

quence,  never  of  the  greatest  value,  and  often  mischievous  ;  but  it  is  that  which 
can  stand  the  test  of  time  and  eternity  alone — truth. 

Now  it  is  truth,  that  from  my  earliest  introduction  into  public  life,  up  to  the 
present  time,  I  never  voted,  I  always  refused  to  vote,  for  the  acquisition  of  one 
inch  of  slave  territory  to  the  United  States.  (Great  applause.)  But  that  goes 
for  nothing,  for  nothing. 

It  is  equally  true  that  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States,  in  so  many 
words,  declares  that  persons  bound  to  service  in  one  State,  under  the  laws 
thereof,  escaping  into  another,  shall  not  be  discharged  therefrom,  but  shall  be 
delivered  up  to  the  person  to  whom  such  service  is  due. 

Nour,  I  have  sworn,  again  and  again,  to  support  that  Constitution,  and  so 
has  every  person,  who  has  held  office  under  the  State  Government,  as  solemnly 
sworn  before  God  to  support  that  Government ;  that  is,  so  far  as  depends  upon 
him,  to  take  care  that  no  fugitive  from  labor,  coming  into  a  free  State,  be  dis 
charged  from  that  labor,  but  shall  be  restored. 

Well,  what  are  we  to  do,  then,  as  conscientious  persons?  How  are  we  to 
treat  this  matter?  Are  we  at  liberty  to  say  that  all  this  is  imagination,  all 
nonsense,  and  we  will  do  as  we  please?  Shall  we  say  here  is  no  obligation 
binding  on  our  conscience  ?  You  might  as  well  say  there  are  no  obligations 
in  domestic  relations.  Our  political  duties  are  equally  matters  of  conscience, 
as  are  the  duties  arising  out  of  our  domestic  ties  and  most  endearing  social  re 
lations.  That  is  my  opinion. 

Now,  Ladies  and  Gentlemen,  I  would  wish  that  all  the  human  race,  of  every 
color,  were  as  happy  as  we  are,  and  as  capable  of  self  government.  So  far  as 
men  are  qualified  for  self-government ;  so  far  as  they  are  happier  by  being 
able  to  take  care  of  themselves,  so  much  the  better.  But  we  are  to  consider 
what  we  do,  and  we  are  not  to  rush  on  under  the  influence  of  a  false  philan- 
throphy  and  mistaken  humanity.  If  you  satisfy  me  that  we  can  do  anything 
for  the  benefit  of  the  Southern  slave,  constitutionally,  I  will  do  it.  I  have  said, 
and  I  say  again,  I  would  vote  in  Congress,  were  I  in  that  body,  to  restore  to  Vir 
ginia  all  the  public  lands  the  General  Goverment  has  had  from  her,  and  all  the 
proceeds  of  the  same  up  to  this  time,  if  by  that  means  it  would  enable  her  to 
provide  some  way  for  the  emancipation  of  her  black  population.  Can  I  do 
more  ?  Can  you  do  more  ?  And  if  we  cannot  do  that,  can  we  do  more  than 
to  leave  it  to  an  all-wise  Providence  to  bring  about  the  result? 

At  the  commencement  of  1850,  a  year  and  a  half  ago,  I  was  a  member  of 
Congress.  I  had  been  there  a  great  while,  perhaps  most  of  you  think  quite 
too  long,  (laughter,)  but  there  I  was.  We  had  acquired  these  new  territories 
from  Mexico,  all  against  my  wishes.  I  voted  against  each  and  all  of  them. 
California  had  no  attractions  for  me.  I  did  not  wish  to  bring  into  this  govern 
ment  the  agitating  question  about  the  further  extension  of  slave  territory. 
Your  Senators  from  New  York  did  wish  it,  and  voted  for  it,  against  many 
votes  of  Southern  gentlemen,  who  felt  as  I  did,  and  who  wished  to  avoid  the 
controversy.  Such  were  Berrien  and  Badger,  Southern  men.  Their  constit 
uents  wished  them  to  vote  for  bringing  in  the  new  acquisitions,  but  they  saw 
the  evil  of  it,  and  they  said,  No  !  and  voted  against  it.  But  the  Northern 
States  voted  for  it,  very  many  of  them,  New  York  and  Rhode  Island,  and  even 
one-half  of  Massachusetts. 

They  said  we  will  try  an  experiment.  Good  Heavens  !  try  an  experiment 
to  see  whether  it  will  dismember  the  Union  !  Make  an  acquisition  which  may 
destroy  it !  Try  an  experiment  upon  the  nation  with  as  much  unconcern  as 
we  try  an  experiment  in  chemistry  !  *  *  *  * 

Well,  this  territory  came  in.  It  turned  out  as  I  foresaw.  I  will  not  say  I 
foresaw  the  whole  ;  I  foresaw  a  part. 

California  was  settled  by  a  rush  of  people  from  the  Northern  and  Middle 


29 

States,  and  they  made  that  government  free  at  once.  So  far  so  good.  She 
came  in  as  a  State,  with  the  star  of  freedom  in  her  forehead,  and  I  rejoice  at 
it.  But  no  doubt  it  was  a  serious  disappointment  to  the  Southern  people,  that 
some  parts  of  California  were  not  set  apart  for  slave  population  and  slave 
culture. 

What  next?  There  were  those  two  territories  of  New  Mexico  and  Utah, 
and  a  great  conflict  between  the  North  and  the  South,  whether  the  Wilmot 
Proviso  should  be  applied  to  New  Mexico. 

I  examined  that  subject ;  I  knew  it  was  distasteful  and  repugnant  to  the 
South ;  and  I  asked  myself  whether  any  such  provision  was  necessary ; 
whether  in  the  course  of  human  events  ;  whether  in  the  geographical  conforma 
tion  of  the  country,  and  the  habits  of  the  people,  there  was  the  least  ground 
to  suppose  that  New  Mexico  would  ever  be  a  slave  country.  I  thought  there 
was  not. 

I  thought  that  by  the  law  of  nature,  superior  to  all  the  Wilmot  Provisos  the 
world  ever  saw,  the  mountains  of  New  Mexico  must  sustain  a  free  population. 
Therefore  I  would  not  consent  merely  as  a  taunting  reproach,  to  apply  the 
Wilmot  Proviso  to  the  mountains  of  New  Mexico  ;  any  more  than  I  would  ap 
ply  it  to  the  Canadas. 

Well,  that  is  the  burden  of  my  offence.  But  throughout  New  York  and 
New  England,  this  refusal  to  apply  the  Wilmot  Proviso,  is  charged  against 
me  as  a  falsification  of  all  the  principles  of  liberty  I  have  supported  all  my 
life. 

I  made  that  declaration  on  the  7th  of  March,  1850.  You  know  the  sound 
of  reproach  that  rang  through  the  whole  country  ;  you  know  how  Webster, 
who  was  supposed  to  be  the  friend  of  liberty  and  of  the  Constitution,  was  re 
viled,  everywhere,  for  his  departure  from  that  course. 

In  forty  days  from  the  time  I  made  that  speech,  and  expressed  my  opinion 
that  it  was  not  necessary  to  have  a  controversy  with  the  South  upon  that  sub 
ject,  because  the  law  of  nature  had  excluded  slavery  from  New  Mexico,  the 
people  of  New  Mexico  assembled  and  formed  a  constitution  which  excluded 
it  altogether. 

Now,  what  have  I  to  complain  of?  I  do  not  mean  to  complain  of  anything; 
but  the  truth  is,  that  of  all  the  presses  in  Western  New  York  arid  New  Eng 
land,  that  reviled  me  so  much  and  so  violently,  for  affirming  there  was  no 
necessity  for  applying  the  Wilmot  Proviso  to  New  Mexico,  there  is  not  one  of 
them  that  has  taken  back  the  charge,  when  they  saw  the  truth  of  my  assertion 
verified  by  facts.  Did  they  say  Webster  was  right  and  we  wrong  ?  No ;  not 
one  of  them. 

Now,  my  fellow-citizens,  we  come  down  to  the  commencement  of  the  year 
1850.  There  was  a  general  agreement,  not  universal,  a  general  consent,  of 
the  majority  of  Congress  to  britig  in  California  under  her  constitution  of  free 
dom,  liut  what  was  to  be  done  with  those  two  territories? 

There  was  a  more  vital  question.  You  know  Texas  accomplished  her  inde 
pendence  by  her  revolution  against  Mexico;  and  afterwards  by  her  Constitu 
tion,  as  she  said,  Texas  embraced  all  the  country  east  of  the  Rio  Grande. 
That  was  disputed.  I  do  not  say  Texas  was  right ;  but  that  was  her  claim. 
Then  we  had  admitted  Texas  in  '45,  without  any  statement  of  her  boundaries; 
but  taking  her  as  she  represented  her  own  boundaries  to  be.  When  she  came 
into  the  Union,  under  the  law  of  '45,  and  when  we  acquired  New  Mexico,  a 
question  immediately  arose  as  to  whom  New  Mexico,  east  of  the  Rio  Grande, 
belonged  ;  whether  to  the  United  States  or  to  Texas,  This  was  very  much  a 
matter  of  dispute.  Now  who  should  settle  this  question  ?  Texas  was  an  ex 
treme  Southern  State,  full  of  ardent  young  men,  ready  for  any  enterprise  for 
what  they  considered  the  support  of  their  rights ;  who  were  going  to  take  pos- 


30 

session  by  force  of  arms,  of  what  they  thought  were  Texas  lands.  At  that  time 
there  were  six  or  seven  States  of  the  South  that  had  passed  resolutions  of  sep 
aration,  or  leading  to  separation,  or  calling  conventions  to  consider  the  question 
of  separation,  and  were  ready  to  take  up  the  cause  of  Texas,  and  assist  in  en 
forcing  her  rights.  Such  was  the  state  of  things. 

I  confess,  that  for  one,  I  thought  it  a  subject  of  the  greatest  importance,  to 
settle  this  question  of  the  Texas  boundary  by  a  just  compromise  ;  by  any  fair 
and  equal  arrangement,  so  that  the  peace  of  the  country  might  be  preserved. 
Without  going  more  at  length  into  the  matter  now,  I  wish  to  say,  that  in  my 
opinion,  there  was  great  danger  of  civil  war.  From  the  condition  of  Texas 
herself,  and  considering  the  thousands  upon  thousands  of  persons  in  the  South 
ern  States,  who  were  only  waiting  an  opportunity  to  make  an  outbreak,  and 
were  ready  to  join  the  standard  of  Texas,  which  would  give  them  the  chance 
for  military  display  ;  I  say  there  was  the  greatest  danger  of  civil  war. 

I  know  very  well,  had  Texas  taken  the  first  step,  the  Government  of  the 
United  States  would  easily  have  subdued  her.  As  a  military  matter,  it  was 
easy  to  foresee  that  result.  But  then  as  a  political  matter,  as  a  matter  con 
nected  with  the  view  which  the  statesman  should  take  of  it,  who  can  see  the 
result  of  the  shedding  of  blood  by  the  Government  ? 

I  though*  ~herefore,  and  think  still,  that  every  reasonable  sacrifice  that 
could  be  made,  to  settle  the  boundary  of  Texas,  and  to  take  away  the  topic  of 
disunion  from  among  us,  should  be  made. 

But  there  remained  other  matters.  I  thought  there  ought  to  be  a  proper 
government  for  Utah  and  New  Mexico.  We  have  in  all  such  cases,  hereto 
fore,  established  a  territorial  government.  We  did  establish  it,  and  that  was 
one  of  the  measures  of  that  Congress,  and  in  my  opinion  a  very  proper  one. 

And  this  leads  us  to  the  consideration  of  the  question  of  the  recent  enact 
ment  of  what  is  called  the  Fugitive  Slave  Law.  I  have  said  that  you  and  I 
are  not  responsible  for  the  existence  of  slavery  in  the  South,  no  more  than  in 
the  Island  of  Cuba,  and  we  have  no  more  to  do  with  the  one  than  the  other. 
It  is  as  far  removed  from  all  your  political  duties,  and  my  political  duties,  as 
the  slaves  in  the  West  India  Islands.  Well,  here  they  are,  and  here  is  an 
original  compact  of  the  States,  that  persons,  bound  to  service  or  labor  in  one 
State,  escaping  into  another,  shall  not  be  discharged,  but  be  returned. 

Now,  in  General  Washington's  time,  in  1793,  Congress  passed  an  act  for 
carrying  this  part  of  the  Constitution  into  effect.  It  was  thought  wise  at  the 
time  to  leave  the  execution  of  that  law  pretty  much  in  the  hands  of  State  tri 
bunals  ;  State  magistrates,  and  officers  and  judges  were  authorized  to  execute 
that  law.  It  was  so  administered  for  fifty  years,  and  nobody  complained  of  it- 
Things  went  on  until  this  new  excitement  of  the  slavery  question,  this  aboli 
tion  question,  was  brought  up,  and  then  some  of  the  States,  Massachusetts, 
Ohio,  and  others,  enacted  laws  making  it  penal  to  execute  this  law  of  Congress. 

Then  the  statute  became  a  dead  letter  in  this  part  of  it ;  when,  of  course,  it 
became  a  matter  of  necessity  to  provide  for  the  execution  of  this  Constitutional 
enactment  by  the  authority  of  the  Government  of  the  United  States,  or  give  it 
up  altogether.  Well,  I  made  no  question  myself,  that  if  we  meant  to  fulfil  the 
contract  of  the  statute,  if  we  meant  to  be  honest,  it  was  our  duty  to  make  a  pro 
vision,  which,  by  the  authority  of  the  Government  itself,  should  carry  into  ex 
ecution  the  provisions  of  the  Constitution.  And  that  is  the  origin  of  the  pres 
ent  Fugitive  Slave  Law. 

I  do  not  to  say  the  law  is  perfect.  I  proposed  some  amendments  to  it,  but 
was  called  from  the  Senate  before  it  was  adjusted. 

The  law  passed,  and  I  have  not  yet  heard  the  man  whose  opinion  is  worth  a 
sixpence,  who  has  said  that  law  is  not  perfectly  constitutional.  The  Judges  of 
he  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States,  of  New  York,  of  Massachusetts,  all 


31 

say  the  law  is  a  constitutional  one,  passed  in  perfect  conformity  to  the  require 
ments  of  the  Constitution.  What  then  ?  Is  it  not  to  be  obeyed  ?  Are  not  those 
who  are  sworn  to  obey  the  Constitution,  to  enforce  that  law  ?  Is  it  not  a  mat 
ter  of  conscience,  of  conscience  ? 

But  what  do  we  hear  ?  We  hear  of  persons  assembling  in  Massachusetts  and 
New  York,  who  set  up  themselves  over  the  Constitution,  above  the  law,  and  above 
the  decisions  of  the  highest  tribunals,  and  who  say  this  law  shall  not  be  car 
ried  into  effect.  You  have  heard  it  here,  have  you  not  ?  Has  it  not  been  so 
said  in  the  county  of  Onondaga  ?  (Cries  of  Yes,  yes.)  And  have  they  not 
pledged  their  lives,  their  fortunes  and  their  sacred  honor  to  defeat  its  execu 
tion  ?  Pledged  their  lives,  their  fortunes,  and  sacred  honor  !  for  what  ?  For 
the  violation  of  the  law,  for  the  committal  of  treason  to  the  country  ;  for  it  is 
treason,  and  nothing  else.  (Great  Applause.) 

I  am  a  lawyer,  and  I  value  my  reputation  as  a  lawyer  more  than  anything 
else,  and  I  tell  you,  if  men  get  together  and  declare  a  law  of  Congress  shall  not 
be  executed  in  any  case,  and  assemble  in  numbers  to  prevent  the  execution  of 
such  law,  they  are  traitors,  and  are  guilty  of  treason,  and  bring  upon  them 
selves  the  penalties  of  the  law. 

No !  No !  It  is  time  to  put  an  end  to  this  imposition  upon  good  citizens, 
good  men  and  good  women.  It  is  treason,  treason^  TREASON,  and  nothing 
else,  (cheers,)  and  if  they  do  not  incur  the  penalties  of  treason,  it  is  owing  to 
the  clemency  of  the  law's  administration,  and  to  no  merit  of  their  own. 

Who  and  wfcat  are  these  men  ?  I  am  assured  some  of  them  are  clergymen, 
and  some,  I  am  sorry  to  say  it,  are  lawyers,  and  who  the  rest  are,  God  only 
knows. 

They  say  the  law  will  not  be  executed.  Let  them  take  care,  for  those  are 
pretty  bold  assertions.  The  law  must  be  executed,  not  only  in  carrying  back 
the  slave,  but  against  those  guilty  of  treasonable  practices  in  resisting  its  exe 
cution. 

Depend  upon  it,  the  law  will  be  executed  in  its  spirit,  and  to  its  letter. 
(Great  applause.)  It  will  be  executed  in  all  the  great  cities  ;  here  in  Syra 
cuse  ;  in  the  midst  of  the  next  Anti-slavery  Convention,  if  the  occasion  shall 
arise  ;  then  we  shall  see  what  becomes  of  their  lives  and  their  sacred  honor. 
(Tremendous  cheering.) 

Do  not  debauch  your  own  understandings,  your  own  judgments  ;  do  not 
render  ridiculous  your  own  sympathy,  humanity  and  philanthropy,  by  any 
such  ideas. 

The  course  of  your  duty  towards  all  that  are  in  bondage  within  your  power 
and  influence  is  plain.  Happily  the  teaching  of  the  sacred  book,  which  is  our 
guide,  instructs  us  in  that  matter.  What  we  can  do,  we  will  do,  to  let  the  op 
pressed  go  free,  to  succor  the  distressed,  and  to  visit  the  prisoner  in  affliction. 
We  must  do  our  duty,  and  we  must  content  ourselves  with  acting  conscien 
tiously  in  that  sphere  of  life  in  which  we  are  placed  ;  politicians  in  their 
sphere,  individuals  in  their  sphere,  and  all  of  us  under  the  deep,  earnest  sense 
of  obligation  that  our  Creator  has  impressed  upon  us. 

It  is  not  unfrequently  said  by  a  class  of  men  to  whom  I  have  referred,  that 
the  Constitution  is  born  of  hell;  that  it  was  the  work  of  the  devil;  and  that 
Washington  was  a  miserable  blood-hound,  set  upon  the  track  of  the  African 
slave.  How  far  these  words  differ  from  words  that  have  saluted  your  ears 
within  yonder  hall,  you  will  judge. 

Men  who  utter  such  sentiments  are  ready  at  any  moment  to  destroy  the 
charter  of  all  your  liberties,  of  all  your  happiness,  and  of  all  your  hope. 
They  are  either  insane,  or  fatally  bent  on  mischief. 

The  question  is,  therefore,  whether  \ve  will  sustain  the  governme  nt  unde 
which  we  live ;  whether  we  will  do  just'ce  to  the  Southern  States,  that  the 


32 

may  have  no  excuse  for  going  out  of  the  Union.  If  there  is  anybody  that  will 
not  consent  that  the  Sotuh  shall  have  a  fair  hearing,  a  fair  trial,  a  fair  decision 
upon  what  they  think  the  Constitution  secures  to  them,  I  am  not  of  that 
number. 

Everybody  knows  that  I  am  a  Northern  man,  born  in  the  extreme  North, 
bred  and  brought  up  in  notions  altogether  irreconcilable  to  human  slavery,  and 
why  should  I  have  any  sentiments  in  common  with  the  South  on  that  subject? 

But  when  it  is  put  to  me  as  a  public  man,  whether  the  people  of  the  South, 
under  the  stipulations  of  this  Constitution,  have  not  the  right  of  a  fair  law  from 
Congress  for  returning  to  them  the  fugitive  slave,  I  say  they  have  ;  arid  I 
could  not  say  otherwise. 

Ladies  and  gentlemen,  you  will  pardon  me  for  the  gravity  of  these  remarks. 
I  had  rather  talk  with  you  in  private  or  public  on  other  subjects;  upon  the 
prosperity  and  happiness  we  all  enjoy  ;  upon  the  growth  of  this  beautiful  por 
tion  of  New  York  ;  and  in  short  upon  anything,  rather  than  upon  the  fugitive 
slave  law, or  Texas  or  New  Mexico;  but  I  came  here  at  the  solicitation  of  the 
people  of  your  city,  to  speak  upon  public  topics.  You  will  accept  my  thanks 
for  the  kind  manner  in  which  you  have  been  pleased  to  receive  me,  arid  I 
wish  you  and  your  families  all,  life,  happiness  and  prosperity. 


MR.  WEBSTER'S  SPEECH 


THE    DINNER    GIVEN   HIM    AT    SYRACUSE. 

B.  DAVIS  NOXON,  ESQ.,  gave  the  following  toast : 

"  The  Constitution  and  its  greatest  Expounder ;  the  Union  and  its  ablest  Defender." 

MR.  WEBSTER  arose,  amid  great  applause,  to  reply. 

I  am  happy  to  meet  you,  and  to  enjoy  this  quiet,  social  and  agreeable  dinner 
with  you.  Mr.  Noxon  has  done  me  too  much  honor,  to  allude  to  me  in  the 
terms  which  he  has  chosen,  in  connecting  my  services  with  the  Constitution  of 
the  country,  and  the  Union. 

It  has  so  happened,  that  all  the  public  services  which  I  have  rendered  in  the 
world,  in  my  day  and  generation,  have  been  connected  with  the  General  Gov 
ernment.  I  think  I  ought  to  make  an  exception.  I  was  ten  days  a  member 
of  the  Massachusetts  Legislature,  (laughter.)  and  I  turned  my  thoughts  to  the 
search  of  some  good  object  in  which  I  could  be  useful  in  that  position  ;  and, 
after  much  reflection,  I  introduced  a  bill  which,  with  the  general  consent  of  both 
houses  of  the  Massachusetts  Legislature,  passed  into  a  law,  and  is  now  a  law 
of  the  State,  which  enacts  that  no  man  in  the  State  shall  catch  trout  in  any 
other  manner  than  with  the  ordinary  hook  and  line.  (Great  laughter.)  With 
that  exception,  I  never  was  connected,  for  an  hour,  with  any  State  Govern 
ment,  in  my  life.  I  never  held  office,  high  or  low,  under  any  State  Govern 
ment.  Perhaps  that  was  my  misfortnne. 

At  the  age  of  thirty,  I  was  in  New   Hampshire,  practising  law,  and  had 


33 

some  clients.  John  Taylor  Gilraan,  who,  for  fourteen  years,  was  Governor  of 
the  State,  thought  that, "a  young  man  as  I  was,  I  might  be  fit  to  be  an  Attor 
ney  General  of  the  State  of  New  Hampshire,  and  he  nominated  me  to  the 
Council ;  and  the  Council  taking  it  into  their  deep  consideration,  and  not  hap 
pening  to  be  of  the  same  politics  of  the  Governor  and  myself,  voted  three  out  of 
five,  that  I  was  not  competent,  and  very  likely  they  were  right.  (Laughter  ) 
So,  you  see,  gentlemeu,  I  never  gained  promotion  in  any  State  Government. 
Gentlemen,  to  be  serious,  my  life  has  been  a  life  of  severe  labor  in  my  pro 
fession,  and  all  the  portion  I  could  spare  of  that  labor,  from  the  support  of  my 
family  and  myself,  has  been  devoted  to  the  consideration  of  subjects  connected 
with  the  general  history  of  the  country;  the  Constitution  of  the  country  ;  the 
confederation  out  of  which  the  Constitution  arose ;  the  history  of  all  the  Con 
gresses  which  have  assembled  before  and  since  the  formation  of  that  Constitu 
tion  ;  and,  in  short,  if  I  have  learned  anything,  or  know  anything,  (and  I  ad 
mit  that  it  is  very  little,)  what  I  do  know,  and  what  I  do  understand,  as  far  as 
I  understand  anything,  is  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States,  the  history  of 
its  formation,  and  the  history  of  its  administration  under  General  Washington, 
and  from  that  time  down  to  this. 

I  sometimes,  gentlemen,  draw  around  me  a  sort  of  presentation  of  characters 
and  persons  who  composed  the  first  administration  of  Washington.  I  like  to 
look  back,  I  like  to  go  back  to  those  original  fountains,  and  draw  in  their  pure 
waters.  There  is  nothing  that  strikes  my  judgment  and  my  feelings,  stronger 
than  to  go  back  to  New  York  in  April,  '89. 

General  Washington  had  been  elected  President.  So  uncertain  was  it  then 
what  would  be  the  success  of  the  new  government,  that  the  4th  of  March  went 
by  four  weeks  before  there  was  a  quorum  of  either  branch  of  Congress.  And 
I  have  seen  several  original  letters,  addressed  to  members  of  Congress,  urging 
them  to  come  on  to  form  a  government. 

Many  of  the  choice  spirits,  and  all  the  eminent  men  that  he  had  known 
through  the  period  of  the  Revolution,  staunch,  good,  strong  men,  disciplined, 
tried  in  the  great  school  of  adversity,  were  there.  There  was  Hamilton,  a 
marvel,  a  perfect  marvel ;  young,  a  man  almost  self  educated,  a  man  of  intui 
tive  genius ;  for  nobody  knows  when  or  where  he  obtained  the  knowledge 
which  distinguished  him  at  so  early  a  period. 

General  Washington  saw  he  was  fit  to  be  placed  at  the  head  of  the  finances 
of  the  government;  a  great  post,  which  was  to  decide  whether  the  government 
could  go  on  or  not ;  because  the  country  was  poor,  arid  the  Congress  of  the 
country  was  untried.  At  that  time,  there  was  no  general  flag,  no  law  regula 
ting  commerce ;  and  the  question  was,  whether  any  revenue  could  be  derived 
from  it. 

And  then  there  was  Gen.  Henry  Knox,  who  in  September  was  placed  at 
the  head  of  the  War  Department,  a  good  soldier.  In  the  same  month,  Wash 
ington  placed  John  Jay  at  the  head  of  the  Judiciary;  that  grave  confidence  to 
the  courts  of  the  United  States.  No  man  ever  ascended  the  bench  of  justice 
with  a  purer  and  higher  character  than  John  Jay.  Afterwards  he  sent  him 
on  a  mo^t  important  mission  to  England,  and  placed  in  that  station  Ellsworth, 
of  Connecticut.  He  invited  Jefferson,  though  not  in  the  country,  to  become 
Secretary  of  State.  In  short  if  one  might  draw  before  him  now  the  scene  as 
it  existed  when  Washington  was  inaugurated,  and  see  his  sedate  and  serene 
manner,  a  manner  which  to  some,  perhaps,  seemed  austere ;  and  if  we  could 
have  him  before  us  this  day,  and  look  at  him  as  he  sat  in  his  first  Cabinet,  it 
would  make  one  of  the  most  striking  historical  pictures  that  could  be  committed 
to  convass.  But  we  go  further  back,  to  '74;  '74  is  the  great  era  in  our  his 
tory,  the  time  of  the  meeting  of  the  first  Congress  in  Philadelphia. 

And  those  remarkable  papers  that  distinguished  that  Congress,  and  especi- 


34 

ally  that  capital  paper  addressed  to  England  by  John  Jay  !  There  we  see  the 
great  basis  of  that  popular  system  which  our  fathers  maintained  through  the 
Revolution,  and  which^ constitutes  the  basis  of  the  present  Constitution  of  the 
United  States. 

Well,  they  fought  through  the  Revolution  ;  they  came  out  conquerors,  and 
peace  took  place  in  '83.  Now,  allow  me  to  say  that  there  is  no  more  interest 
ing  period  in  our  history,  than  that  which  ensued  between  the  peace  of  '83  and 
the  establishment  of  this  Government. 

The  States  were  all  separate,  all  poor ;  none  had  any  commerce.  There 
was  the  debt  of  the  Revolution  unpaid,  millions  upon  millions  ;  and  the  gov 
ernment  then  existing  could  not  lay  any  tax,  and  could  not  collect  any  duties. 

Of  all  periods  in  our  history,  if  you,  young  men,  will  study  it,  if  those  who 
hope  to  be  distinguished  in  the  history  of  our  country  hereafter  will  study  it, 
that  portion  of  our  history  from  the  peace  of  '83  to  the  establishment  of  this 
Government,  is  fullest  of  instruction  of  all  others. 

Then  it  was  that  the  ceaseless  activity  of  Hamilton  and  Madison  exhibited 
itself.  They  were  the  two  great  motive  powers,  the  one  north,  the  other 
south.  Hamilton  was  ten  years  the  younger,  but  he  was  the  elder  in  every 
thing  but  years,  and  Madison  followed  him  in  matters  of  the  highest  moment. 

If,  gentlemen,  you  should  have  occasion  to  recur  to  the  reports  of  Congress, 
in  '83,  upon  the  necessity  of  such  a  government  as  could  lay  uniform  duties, 
and  make  a  uniform  commerce,  and  establish  a  uniform  government,  so  that 
there  should  be  the  same  commerce  of  Massachusetts  and  of  Virginia,  there 
you  will  see  all  the  elements  laid  down. 

It  is  in  these  pursuits,  and  in  the  study  of  these  questions,  that  I  have  per 
haps,  devoted  more  of  my  time  than^a  more  strict  regard  to  myself  and  my 
family  would  justify.  But  I  must  confess  they  have  been  the  pursuits  of  my 
life. 

Then  we  arrive  at  the  assembly  of  gentlemen  from  several  of  the  States,  in 
'86.  There  were  Madison  and  Hamilton,  and  a  few  others,  twelve  in  all,  I 
think,  whose  object  was  to  bring  the  States  to  the  same  conclusion,  that  goods 
imported  should  pay  a  uniform  duty. 

After  a  session  of  two  weeks,  they  concluded  to  recommend  the  calling  of  a 
convention  to  make  a  constitution  of  government  for  the  whole  United  States. 
That  recommendation  was  sent  to  the  old  Congress,  and  by  them  sent  to  the 
old  States.  And  in  May,  1787,  the  convention  that  formed  the  present  Con 
stitution  met  in  Philadelphia. 

So  the  formation  of  the  Constitution  went  on  by  slow  degrees,  and  wise  and 
experienced  public  men  came  to  the  conclusion  that  these  States  could  not  be 
prosperous  without  a  General  Government,  and  that  Government  founded  up 
on  the  principle  of  a  Union  in  things  common  and  general  to  all,  and  the  State's 
power  and  authority  reserved  wherever  the  general  Union,  and  the  purposes 
of  it,  did  not  require  an  interference. 

These  things  are  all  historical.  It  is  in  the  nature  of  things  that  men  go  on 
from  step  to  step,  according  to  the  exigency  of  the  case.  They  found  a  Union 
was  necessary,  a  common  commercial  system  necessary ;  and  all  these  things 
were  provided  for  in  the  Constitution  under  which  we  live.  If  we  look  at  it, 
we  shall  see  it  is  a  matter  of  compromise  and  agreement  from  h'rst  to  last. 
The  Northern  States  were  commercial,  and  what  had  they  to  gain  ?  They 
had  to  gain  a  protected  commerce  abroad,  and  an  exclusive  right  of  the  coast 
ing  trade,  and  of  the  domestic  trade  of  the  country,  as  against  foreign  influen 
ces.  The  South  yielded  all  that.  They  agreed  to  place  in  Congress  the  en 
tire  control  over  the  commerce  of  the  country,  both  domestic  and  foreign.  And 
therefore  we  all  know  that  the  first  Congress  that  ever  assembled,  placed  the 
entire  coasting  trade  of  the  country  in  American  hands.  Foreign  ships  could 


35 

not,  after  that,  trade  between  Boston  and  Virginia.  And  at  that  day  the  com 
merce  was  mostly  New  England  and  New  York  commerce,  and  so  it  has  re 
mained  to  this  day.  And  now  it  employs  a  vast  tonnage  and  thousands  of 
ships.  And  all  of  it,  from  Maine  to  California,  is  confined  to  American  ves 
sels.  No  foreigner  interferes.  They  could  carry  much  cheaper  and  be  more 
useful  to  Southern  consumers  ;  for  it  is  a  fact  that  the  vessels  of  Northern  Eu 
rope,  of  Sweden,  and  the  Hanse  Towns,  navigate  the  seas  cheaper  than  we 
can,  because  they  do  not  pay  so  much  wages  to  their  hands  as  we  do,  nor  feed 
them  so  well. 

All  this  is  preserved,  and  preserved  under  this  Constitution,  to  the  commer 
cial  interests  of  the  North.  Well,  this  is  the  great  boon  which  my  conntry  of 
New  England  and  yours  of  New  York  have  received  from  the  Government. 
It  has  carried  their  flag  all  over  the  world. 

Then  the  Constitution  went  on  to  declare  other  things, 

In  the  first  place,  it  placed  the  foreign  relations  of  the  country  in  a  right 
position.  In  the  next  place,  it  regulated  uniform  duties,  and  that  was  of  the 
utmost  importance.  Why?  There  was  the  little  State  of  Delaware  that  had 
a  good  port  of  entry.  And  Rhode  Island  which  had  an  admirable  port 
of  entry.  The  State  of  Rhode  Island  had  the  power  of  assessing  duties  high 
or  low,  as  she  saw  fit,  and  by  underbidding  the  State  of  New  York  and  Mas 
sachusetts,  could  support  her  government,  and  educate  all  the  children  in  the 
State  besides,  from  her  revenues.  While  Rhode  Island  was  out  of  the  Gener 
al  Government,  the  State  could  regulate  the  duties  of  imports  into  Newport, 
and  could  so  underbid  the  State  of  Massachusetts,  as  to  raise  enough  to  main 
tain  its  whole  government.  It  was,  therefore  a  great  sacrifice  to  give  up  what 
was,  in  fact,  a  subsistence,  and  come  in  under  a  general  system.  But  it  was 
done.  The  North  and  South  all  agreed  to  it.  That  is  what  has  made  New 
York,  Philadelphia,  and  Boston.  Gentlemen,  there  were  compromises  on 
both  sides,  but  of  that  I  have  said  enough  to-day,  as  regards  Southern  rights 
acquired  under  the  Constitution.  Then,  gentlemen,  there  is  a  larger  view  of 
this  matter,  a  national  view.  We  were  no  nation  before  '89.  We  had  no  flag, 
and  there  was  no  power  in  Europe  that  would  treat  with  any  State,  nor  had 
any  State  any  treaty  with  any  foreign  power. 

It  was  only  when  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States  hud  been  adopted  ; 
when  the  Government  was  organized  under  it,  in  the  city  of  New  York,  in 
April,  '89;  when  bivvs  were  made,  imposing  uniform  duties  in  every  port; 
when  there  was  a  common  flag,  a  common  authority  ;  it  was  then,  and  only 
then,  that  we  became  a  nation  such  as  we  now  are.  If  there  is  any  man  more 
conversant  with  history  than  I  am,  who  can  find  out  any  records,  ancient  or 
modern,  who  can  refer  to  anything  that  has  occurred  since  the  flood,  so  illus 
trative  of  the  power  of  a  great,  united  government,  as  our  own  history  has- 
shown,  I  should  be  glad  to  see  it.  Whether  it  be  poetry,  or  fiction,  or  imag* 
ination.  I  defy  any  man  to  produce  anything  equal  to  it  from  any  source. 

An  1  I  may  say,  in  consequence  of  the  allusion  which  has  been  made  to  me, 
that  it  has  been  in  the  study  of  these  topics,  of  the  principles  of  this  Constitu 
tion,  of  the  manner  of  its  administration,  that  I  have  spent  all  that  part  of  niy 
life,  not  now  a  short  one,  which  I  could  spare  from  the  severe  duties  of  my 
profession ;  and  I  must  say,  gentlemen,  that  I  go  back  every  day  of  my  life  to 
the  model  of  Washington's  administration.  And  I  say  to  you  here  to-night, 
were  I  to  draw  the  character  of  a  President,  such  as  Washington,  were  he  on 
earth,  would  approve,  Washington  himself  should  stand  before  me,  and  I  would 
copy  his  master-strokes  and  imitate  his  designs.  (Great  applause.) 

It  was  a  marvel,  a  perfect  marvel,  for  a  man  to  come  up  to  the  civil"  govern 
ment  from  the  head  of  our  armies,  who  possessed  so  much  moderation,  so  much 
caution,  so  much  wisdom  and  firmness,  and  who  at  once  entered  upon*  the  civil 


36 

administration  of  the  government  with  so  much  prudence,  and  in  a  manner  to 
give  so  much  satisfaction,  and  that  has  left  on  the  whole  a  character  more  re 
markable  and  more  renowned  than  any  other  public  mao  ever  possessed* 
(Applause.) 

Thus  it  has  happened,  we  have  had  great  models.  In  the  course  of  suc 
ceeding  times  we  may  have  great  models.  We  have  sometimes  thought  that 
this  administration,  or  that,  has  gone  wrong,  but  they  all  at  length  have  work 
ed  into  the  same  line,  and  we  are  now,  after  the  lapse  of  more  than  sixty  years 
in  the  possession  of  the  same  Constitution,  adequate  to  the  accomplishment  of 
all  good  purposes  ;  and  1  think,  if  we  have  the  good  sense  and  forbearance  to 
keep  together,  there  is  nothing  we  may  not  expect  to  attain  to.  We  have  had 
dangers,  but  they  have  been  overcome ;  and  I  flatter  myself  that  we  shall  re 
member  that  our  forefathers  fought  together,  and  achieved  our  liberties  togeth 
er,  established  this  government  together,  that  it  was  their  united  wisdom  that 
gave  the  first  impulse  to  the  laws  setting  the  government  in  motion. 

We  have  prospered  under  it,  and  have  gloried  under  it,  and  it  has  raised 
our  name,  and  fame,  and  character  (I  would  not  boast)  higher  than  that  of  any 
nation  upon  the  earth.  (Prolonged  cheers.)  I  say  it  in  the  fullness  of  my 
conviction,  there  is  not  a  name  given  under  Heaven,  which  touches  in  so 
thrilling  a  manner  the  races  of  millions  of  the  civilized  people  of  the  world,  as 
the  American  nation,  the  country  of  Washington.  I  hope  to  live  to  a  good  old 
age  ;  I  hope  to  see  nothing  that  will  mar  that  name;  but  if  it  be  the  pleasure 
of  God  in  his  all-wise  Providence  to  cast  a  cloud  over  that  prospect ;  if  it  be 
in  the  future  that  this  country,  this  glorious  nation,  this  renowned  government 
shall  fall  to  pieces,  thankful  to  Him  for  the  life  that  I  have  lived,  I  shall  be 
more  thankful  if  he  shall  take  me  to  himself  before  I  see  such  a  state  of  things. 
(Great  applause.) 


MR.  SPENCER'S  SPEECH 


DINNER  GIVEN   TO   MR.   WEBSTER  AT   ALBANY. 


Mr.  SPENCER  rose  and  addressed  the  company  as  follows: — 
I  am  about  to  offer  a  sentiment,  my  friends,  which  you  expect  from  the 
chair.  The  presence  of  the  distinguished  guest  whom  we  have  met  to  honor, 
imposes  restraints  which  may  not  be  overleaped.  Within  those  limits,  and 
without  offending  the  generous  spirit  which  has  on  this  occasion  discarded  all 
political  and  partizan  feeling,  I  may  recal  to  our  recollection  a  few  incidents  in 
his  public  life,  which  have  won  for  him  the  proud  title  of  "  Defender  of  the 
Constitution."  (Great  applause.) 

When  in  1832-33,  South  Carolina  raised  her  parricidal  arm  against  our 
common  mother,  and  the  administration  of  the  government  was  in  the  hands  of 
that  man  of  determined  purpose  and  iron  will,  Andrew  Jackson,  whose  great- 


37 

est  glory  was  his  inflexible  resolution  to  sustain  the  Union  or  perish  with  it, 
(here  the  speaker  was  interrupted  by  deafening  shouts  of  applause,)  in  that 
dark  and  gloomy  day,  where  was  our  guest  found  ?  Did  he  think  of  paltry 
politics,  of  how  much  his  party  might  gain  by  leaving  their  antagonists  to  fight 
the  battle  of  the  Union  between  themselves,  and  thus  become  a  prey  to  their 
watchful  opponents  ?  No,  gentlemen,  you  know  what  he  did.  He  rallied  his 
mighty  energies,  and  tendered  them  openly  and  heartily  to  a  political  chieftain 
whose  administration  he  had  constantly  opposed.  (Cheers  upon  cheers  )  He 
breasted  himself  to  the  storm.  Where  blows  were  thickest  and  heaviest,  there 
was  he ;  and  when  he  encountered  the  great  champion  of  the  South,  Colonel 
Hayne,  in  that  immortal,  intellectual  struggle,  the  parallel  of  which  no  country 
has  witnessed,  the  hopes,  the  breathless  anxiety  of  a  nation,  hung  upon  his 
efforts ;  and,  oh,  what  a  shout  of  joy  and  gratulation  ascended  to  heaven,  at  the 
matchless  victory  which  he  achieved.  (Here,  for  some  time,  the  speaker  was 
unable  to  proceed,  in  consequence  of  the  incessant  and  tumultuous  cheering  of 
the  company,  who  had  spontaneously  risen  from  their  seats.)  Had  he  then 
been  called  to  his  fathers,  the  measure  of  his  fame  would  have  been  full  to 
overflowing,  and  he  would  have  left  a  monument  in  the  grateful  recollection  of 
his  countrymen,  such  as  no  statesman  of  modern  times  has  reared.  (Renewed 
applause.)  But  he  was  reserved  by  a  kind  Providence  for  greater  efforts. 
For  more  than  twenty  years,  in  the  Senate  Chamber,  in  the  courts  of  justice, 
and  in  the  executive  councils,  he  has  stood  sentinel  over  the  Constitution.  It 
seems  to  have  been  the  master  passion  of  his  life  to  love,  to  venerate,  to  defend, 
to  fight  for  the  Constitution,  at  all  times  and  in  all  places.  (Cheers  upon 
cheers  )  He  did  so  because  the  Union  existed  and  can  exist  only  in  the 
Constitution  ;  and  the  pea^e  and  happiness  of  the  country  can  exist  only  in 
the  Union.  In  fighting  for  the  Constitution,  he  fought  therefore  for  the  country, 
for  the  whole  country. 

I  may  not  speak  in  detail  of  the  many  acts  of  his  public  life  which  have  de 
veloped  this  absorbing  love  of  country.  Hut  there  are  a  few  of  the  precious 
gems  in  the  circlet  which  adorns  his  brow,  that  are  so  marked  arid  prominent 
that  they  cannot  be  overlooked. 

When  he  first  assumed  the  duties  of  the  Department  of  State,  war  was  low 
ering  in  our  horizon  like  a  black  cloud,  ready  to  launch  its  thunderbolts  around 
us.  The  alarming  state  of  our  foreign  relations,  at  that  time,  is  shown  by  the 
extraordinary  fact  that  the  appropriation  bills  passed  by  Congress  at  the  close 
of  Mr.  Van  Buren's  administration  contained  an  unusual  provision,  authorizing 
the  President  to  transfer  them  to  military  purposes.  In  a  few  months  after 
our  guest  took  the  matter  in  hand,  the  celebrated  treaty  with  Lord  Ashburton 
was  concluded,  by  which  the  irritating  question  of  boundary  was  settled,  every 
difficulty  then  known  or  anticipated  was  adjusted,  and  among  others,  the  de 
testable  claim  to  search  our  vessels  for  British  seamen,  was  renounced. 

In  connection  with  this  treaty,  I  take  this  occasion,  the  first  that  has  pre 
sented  itself,  to  state  some  facts  which  are  not  generally  known.  The  then 
administration  had  no  strength  in  Congress  ;  it  could  command  no  support  for 
any  of  its  measures.  This  was  an  obstacle  sufficiently  formidable  in  itself. 
But  Mr.  Webster  had  to  deal  with  a  feeble  and  wayward  President,  an  un 
friendly  Senate,  a  hostile  House  of  Representatives,  and  an  accomplished  Brit 
ish  diplomatist.  I  speak  of  what  I  personally  know,  when  I  say,  that  never 
was  a  negotiation  environed  with  greater  or  more  perplexing  difficulties.  He 
had  at  least  three  parties  to  negotiate  with  instead  of  one,  to  say  nothing  of 
Massachusetts  and  Maine,  who  had  to  be  consulted  in  relation  to  a  boundary 
that  affected  their  territory.  You  know  the  result ;  glorious  as  it  was  to  our 
country,  how  glorious  was  it  also  to  the  pilot  that  guided  the  ship  through  such 
difficulties!  (Prolonged  cheering.) 

You  have  not  forgotten  how  the  generous  sympathies  of  our  guest  were 


38 

awakened  in  behalf  of  the  noble  Hungarians,  in  their  immortal  resistance 
against  the  force  of  barbarism.  And  sure  I  am  there  is  not  a  heart  here  that 
has  not  treasured  up  the  contents  of  that  world-renowned  letter  to  Chevalier 
Hulseman,  in  answer  to  the  intimations  of  threats  by  Austria  to  treat  our 
diplomatic  agent  as  a  spy  !  What  American  was  not  proud  of  being  the  coun 
tryman  of  the  author  of  that  letter  ?  (Cheers  upon  cheers  silenced  the  speaker 
for  some  time.) 

I  confess  I  cannot  now  think  of  that  letter,  without  recollecting  the  sensa 
tions  a  particular  part  of  it  produced  upon  my  risible  faculties.  I  mean  the 
comparison  between  the  national  importance  of  the  House  of  Hapsburgh  and 
those  of  the  United  States  of  America.  (A  universal  shout  of  merriment  here 
interrupted  the  speaker  again  and  again,  and  prevented  him  from  proceeding 
for  some  time.) 

But  I  must  stop  the  enumeration  of  the  great  deeds  in  the  glory  of  which  we 
all  participate,  and  by  the  results  of  which  the  whole  civilized  world  has  been 
benefitted.  I  must  stop,  or  the  setting  sun  would  leave  me  still  at  the  task,  and 
the  rising  sun  would  find  it  unfinished. 

The  same  soul-absorbing  devotion  to  the  country  and  to  the  Constitution,  as 
its  anchor  of  safety,  has  been  exhibited  so  recently  and  so  remarkably,  that  no 
one  can  have  forgotten  it.  In  the  view  which  I  present  of  the  matter,  it  is 
quite  immaterial  whether  we  regard  our  guest  as  having  been  right  or  wrong. 
He  deemed  the  course  he  took  to  be  the  only  one  permitted  to  him  by  his 
sense  of  duty.  On  the  other  side  were  the  strong  feelings  with  which,  as  a 
Northern  man,  he  had  always  sympathized  ;  there  also  were  the  friends  of  his 
youth  and  of  his  age  ;  the  troops  of  ardent  and  devoted  admirers  ;  all  whose 
love  was  equal  to  their  reverence;  all  the  associations  and  affections  of  life 
were  clustered  there  ;  while  on  the  other  side  a  feeling  of  enmity,  engendered 
by  former  contests  and  the  defeat  of  all  their  schemes,  nothing  to  allure  or  in 
vite,  but  everything  to  repel,  except  one,  and  that  was  the  Constitution  of  the 
country  ;  that,  as  he  conscientiously  believed,  required  him  to  interpose  and 
prevent  a  breach  of  faith,  as  well  as  of  the  organic  law,  and  avert  a  civil  war 
that  he  believed  was  impending.  He  hesitated  riot  a  moment,  but  at  once 
marched  up  to  the  deadly  breach,  and  was  ready  to  sacrifice  upon  his  coun 
try's  altar,  more  than  life,  everything  that  could  render  life  worth  retaining. 

My  friends,  whatever  other  view  may  be  taken  of  that  step,  every  one 
knows  that  it  conformed  to  the  whole  plan  of  his  public  life  to  know  no  North, 
no  South,  when  the  Constitution  was  in  question  ;  and  there  is  not  a  heart  in 
this  assembly  that  will  not  respond  to  my  voice  when  I  pronounce  it  heroism ; 
heroism  of  the  most  sublime  order.  It  can  be  compared  only  to  that  .of  the 
Great  Reformer  who,  when  advised  not  to  proceed  to  the  Diet  that  was  con 
voked  to  condemn  him,  declared  that  if  fifty  thousand  legions  of  devils  stood  in 
the  way,  go  he  would  !  (Prolonged  and  universal  shouts.) 

Howr  poor  and  insignificant  are  all  o'ur  efforts  to  express  our  appreciation  of 
such  a  character  and  of  such  services.  They  have  sunk  deep  in  our  hearts  ; 
they  will  sink  deeper  still  in  the  hearts  of  the  unborn  millions  who  are  to  peo 
ple  this  vast  continent,  and  when  he  and  we  sleep  with  our  fathers,  his  name  will 
reverberate  from  the  Atlantic  to  the  Pacific  as  the  defender  of  the  Constitution 
and  of  his  country. 

Gentlemen,  I  give  you  a  sentiment  which  I  think  will  be  drank  in  bumpers 
and  standing,  (The  whole  assembly  rose  at  once  with  acclamation  :) 

"  The  Constitution  of  the  United  States,  and  Daniel  Webster,  inseparable  now,  and  insep 
arable  in  the  records  of  time  and  eternity." 


39 


MR.  WEBSTER'S  RESPONSE. 


FELLOW  CITIZENS,  I  owe  the  honor  of  this  occasion,  and  I  esteem  it  an 
uncommon  and  extraordinary  honor,  to  the  young  men  of  this  city  of  Albany  ; 
and  it  is  my  first  duty  to  express  to  these  young  men  my  grateful  thanks  for 
the  respect  they  have  manifested  towards  me.  Nevertheless,  nevertheless, 
young  men  of  Albany,  I  do  not  mistake  you,  or  your  object,  or  your  purpose. 
I  am  proud  to  take  to  myself  whatever  may  properly  belong  to  me,  as  a  token 
of  personal  and  political  regard  from  you  to  me.  But  I  know,  young  men  of 
Albany,  it  is  not  I,  but  the  cause  ;  it  is  not  I,  but  your  own  generous  attach 
ments  to  yoftr  country  ;  it  is  not  I,  but  the  Constitution  of  the  Union,  which 
has  bound  together  your  ancestors  and  mine,  and  all  of  us,  lor  more  than  half 
a  century.  It  is  this,  that  has  brought  you  here  to-day,  to  testify  your  regard 
toward  one  who,  to  the  best  of  his  humble  ability,  has  sustained  that  cause  be 
fore  the  country.  (Cheers.)  Go  on,  young  men  of  Albany  !  Go  on,  young 
men  of  the  United  States !  Early  manhood  is  the  chief  prop  and  support,  the 
reliance  and  hope,  for  the  preservation  of  public  liberty  and  the  institutions  of 
the  land.  Early  manhood  is  ingenuous,  generous,  just.  It  looks  forward  to  a 
long  life  of  honor  or  dishonor  ;  and  it  means,  by  the  blessing  of  God,  that  it 
shall  be  a  life  of  honor,  of  usefulness,  and  success,  in  all  the  professions  and 
pursuits  of  life  ;  and  that  it  shall  close,  when  close  it  must,  with  some  claim  to 
the  gratitude  of  the  country.  Go  on,  then  ;  uphold  the  institutions  to  which 
you  were  born.  You  are  manly,  fearless,  bold.  You  fear  nothing  but  to  do 
wrong,  dread  nothing  but  to  be  found  recreant  to  patriotism  and  to  your 
country. 

Gentlemen,  I  certainly  had  no  expectation  of  appearing  in  such  an  assem 
blage  as  this  to-day.  It  is  not  probable,  that  for  a  long  time  to  come  I  may 
again  address  any  large  assemblage  of  my  fellow-citizens.  If  I  should  not,  and 
if  this  were  the  last,  or  to  be  among  the  last  of  all  the  occasions  in  which  I  am  to 
appear  before  any  great  number  of  the  people  of  the  country,  I  shall  not  regret 
that  that  appearance  was  here.  I  find  myself  in  the  political  capitol  of  the  great 
est,  most  commercial,  most  powerful  State  of  the  Union.  I  find  myself  invited 
to  be  here  by  persons  of  the  highest  respectability,  without  distinction  of  party. 
I  consider  the  occasion  as  somewhat  august.  I  know  that  among  those  who 
now  listen  to  me  there  are  such  as  are  of  the  wisest,  the  best,  the  most  patriotic 
and  the  most  experienced  public  and  private  men  in  the  State  of  New  York. 
Here  are  governors  and  ex-governors,  here  are  judges  and  ex-judges,  of  high 
character  and  high  station  ;  and  here  are  persons  from  all  the  walks  of  profession 
al  and  private  life,  distinguished  for  talent,  and  virtue,  and  eminence.  Fellow 
citizens,  before  such  an  assemblage,  and  on  such  an  invitation,  I  feel  bound  to 
guard  every  opinion  and  every  expression  ;  to  speak  with  precision  such  senti 
ments  as  I  advance,  and  to  be  careful  in  all  that  I  say,  that  I  may  not  be  mis 
apprehended  or  misrepresented.  I  am  requested,  fellow-citizens,  by  those  who 
invited  me,  to  signify  my  sentiments  on  the  state  of  public  affairs  in  this  coun 
try,  and  the  interesting  questions  which  are  before  us. 

This  proves,  gentlemen,  that  in  their  opinion  there  are  questions  sometimes 
arising  which  range  above  all  party,  and  all  the  influences,  and  considerations, 
and  interests  of  party.  It  proves  more;  it  proves  that,  in  their  judgment,  this 
is  a  time  in  which  public  affairs  do  rise  in  importance  above  the  range  of  party, 


40 

and  draw  to  them  an  interest  paramount  to  all  party  considerations.  If  that 
be  not  so,  I  am  here  without  object,  and  you  are  listening  to  me  for  no  purpose 
whatever. 

Then,  gentlemen,  what  is  the  condition  of  public  affairs  which  makes  it  ne 
cessary  and  proper  for  men  to  meet,  arid  confer  together  on  the  state  of  the 
country  ?  What  are  the  questions  which  are  overriding,  subduing,  and  over 
whelming  party,  uniting  honest,  well-meaning  persons  to  lay  party  aside,  to 
meet  and  confer  for  the  general  public  weal?  I  shall,  of  course, fellow-citizens, 
not  enter  at  large  into  many  of  these  questions,  nor  into  any  lengthened  discus 
sion  of  the  state  of  public  affairs,  but  shall  endeavor  to  state  what  that  condi 
tion  is,  what  these  questions  are,  and  to  pronounce  a  conscientious  judgment  of 
my  own  upon  the  whole. 

The  last  Congress,  fellow  citizens,  passed  laws  called  adjustment  measures, 
or  settlement  measures;  laws  intended  to  put  an  end  to  certain  internal  and 
domestic  controversies  which  existed  in  the  country,  and  some  of  them  for  a 
long  time.  These  laws  were  passed  by  the  constitutional  majorities  of  both 
houses  of  Congress.  They  received  the  constitutional  approbation  of  the  Presi 
dent.  They  are  the  laws  of  the  land.  To  some,  or  all  of  them,  indeed  to  all 
of  them,  at  the  time  of  their  passage,  there  existed  warm  and  violent  opposi 
tion.  None  of  them  passed  without  heated  discussion.  Government  was  es 
tablished  in  each  of  the  territories  of  New  Mexico  and  Utah,  but  not  without 
opposition.  The  boundary  of  Texas  was  to  be  settled  by  compromise  with 
that  Stat ;,  but  not  without  determined  and  violent  opposition.  These  laws  all 
passed,  and  as  they  have  now  become,  from  the  nature  of  the  case  irrepealable, 
it  is  r<ot  necessary  that  I  should  detain  you  by  discussing  their  merits  and  de 
merits.  Nevertheless,  gentlemen,  I  desire  on  this  and  on  all  public  occasions, 
in  the  most  emphatic  and  clear  manner  to  declare,  that  I  hold  some  of  these 
laws,  and  especially  that  which  provided  for  the  adjustment  of  the  controversy 
with  Texas,  to  have  been  essential  to  the  preservation  of  the  public  peace. 

I  will  not  now  argue  that  point,  nor  lay  before  you  at  large  the  circumstan 
ces  which  existed  at  that  time  ;  the  peculiar  situation  of  things  in  so  many  of  the 
Southern  States,  or  the  fact  that  many  of  those  States,  had  adopted  measures 
*  for  the  separation  of  the  Union  ;  the  fact  that  Texas  was  preparing  to  assert 
her  rights  to  territory  which  New  Mexico  thought  was  hers  by  right  and  that 
hundreds  and  thousands  of  men,  tired  of  the  ordinary  pursuits  of  private  life, 
were  ready  to  rise  and  unite  in  any  enterprise  that  might  open  itself  to  them, 
even  at  the  risk  of  a  direct  conflict  with  the  authority  of  this  Government.  I 
say,  therefore,  without  going  into  the  argument  with  any  details,  that  in  March 
of  1850,  when  I  found  it  my  duty  to  address  Congress  on  these  important 
topics,  it  was  my  conscientious  belief,  still  unshaken,  ever  since  confirmed,  that 
if  the  controversy  with  Texas  could  not  be  amicably  adjusted,  there  must,  in 
all  probability,  have  been  civil  war  and  civil  bloodshed  ;  and  in  the  contem 
plation  of  such  a  prospect  it  was  of  little  consequence  on  which  standard  vic 
tory  should  perch  ;  although  in  such  a  contest  we  took  it  for  granted  that  no 
opposition  could  arise  to  the  authority  of  the  United  States  that  would  not  be 
suppressed.  But  what  of  that  ?  I  was  not  anxious  about  the  military  conse 
quences  of  things  ;  I  looked  to  the  civil  and  political  state  of  things  and  their 
results,  and  I  inquired  what  would  be  the  condition  of  the  country  if,  in  this 
agitated  state  of  things,  if,  in  this  vastly  extended,  though  not  generally  per 
vading  feeling  at  the  South,  war  should  break  out,  and  bloodshed  should  ensue 
in  that  extreme  of  the  Union?  That  was  enough  for  me  to  inquire  into  and 
regard  ;  and  if  the  chances  had  been  but  one  in  a  thousand  that  such  would 
have  been  the  result,  I  should  still  have  felt  that  that  one  thousandth  chance 
should  be  guarded  against  by  any  reasonable  sacrifice  ;  because,  gentlemen, 
sanguine  as  1  am  for  the  future  prosperity  of  the  country ;  strongly  as  I  be- 


41 

lieve  now,  after  what  has  passed,  and  especially  after  those  measures  to  which 
I  have  referred,  that  it  is  likely  to  hold  together,  I  yet  believe  firmly  that  this 
Union,  once  broken,  is  utterly  incapable,  according  to  all  human  experience, 
of  being  re-constructed  in  its  original  character,  of  being  re-cemented  by  any 
chemistry,  or  art,  or  effort,  or  skill  of  man.  Now,  gentlemen,  let  us  pass  from 
those  measures  which  are  now  accomplished  and  settled.  California  is  in  the 
Union  arid  cannot  go  out  ;  the  Texas  boundary  is  settled,  and  cannot  be  dis 
turbed  ;  Utah  and  New  Mexico  are  territories,  under  provision  of  law,  accord 
ing  to  accustomed  usage  in  former  cases,  and  these  things  may  be  regarded  as 
settled.  But  then  there  was  another  subject,  equally  agitating  and  equally  ir 
ritating,  which,  in  its  nature,  must  always  be  subject  to  consideration  or  pro 
posed  amendment,  and  that  is  the  fugitive  slave  law  of  1850,  passed  at  the 
same  session  of  Congress. 

Allow  me  to  advert,  very  shortly,  to  what  I  consider  the  ground  of  that  law. 
You  know,  and  I  know,  that  it  was  very  much  opposed  in  the  Northern  States ; 
sometimes  with  argument  not  unfair,  often  by  mere  ebulition  of  party,  and  of 
ten  by  those  whirlwinds  of  fanaticism  that  raise  a  dust  and  blind  the  eyes,  but 
produce  nothing  else.  Now,  gentlemen,  this  question  of  the  propriety  of  the 
fugitive  slave  law,  or  the  enactment  of  some  such  law,  is  a  question  that  must 
be  met.  Its  enemies  will  not  let  it  sleep  or  slumber.  They  will  ''give  neither 
sleep  to  their  eyes  nor  slumber  to  their  eyelids  "  so  long  as  they  can  agitate  it 
before  the  people.  It  is  with  them  a  topic,  a  desirable  topic,  and  all  know 
who  have  much  experience  in  political  affairs,  that  for  party  men,  and  in  party 
times  there  is  hardly  anything  so  desirable  as  a  topic.  (Laughter.)  Now,  gen 
tlemen,  I  am  ready  to  meet  this  question.  I  am  ready  to  meet  it ;  I  am  ready 
to  say  that  it  was  right,  proper,  expedient,  just,  that  a  suitable  law  should  be 
passed  for  the  restoration  of  the  fugitive  slaves,  found  in  free  States,  to  their 
owners  in  the  slave  States.  I  am  ready  to  say  that,  because  I  only  repeat  the 
words  of  the  Constitution  itself,  and  I  am  not  afraid  of  being  considered  a  pla 
giarist,  nor  a  feeble  imitator  of  other  men's  language  and  sentiments  when  I 
repeat  and  announce  to  every  part  of  the  country,  to  you,  here,  and  at  all 
times,  the  language  of  the  Constitution  of  my  country.  (Loud  Cheers)  Gen 
tlemen,  before  the  Revolution,  slavery  existed  in  the  Southern  States,  and  had 
existed  there  for  more  than  a  hundred  years.  We  of  the  North  were  not 
guilty  of  its  introduction.  That  generation  of  men,  even  in  the  South,  were 
not  guilty  of  it.  It  had  been  introduced  according  to  the  policy  of  the  mother 
country,  before  there  was  any  independence  in  the  United  States  ;  indeed,  be 
fore  there  were  any  authorities  in  the  colonies  competent  to  resist  it.  Why, 
gentlemen,  men's  opinions  have  so  changed  on  this  subject,  and  properly,  the 
world  has  come  to  so  much  juster  sentiments,  we  can  hardly  believe,  that 
which  is  certainly  true,  that  at  the  peace  of  Aix  la  Chapelle,  in  1748,  the  Eng 
lish  Government  insisted  on  the  fulfillment,  to  its  full  extent,  of  a  condition  in 
the  treaty  of  the  Assiento,  signed  at  Utrecht,  in  1713,  by  which  the  Spanish 
Government  had  granted  the  unqualified  and  exclusive  privilege  to  the  British 
Government  of  importing  slaves  into  the  Spanish  colonies  in  America!  That 
was  not  then  repugnant  to  public  sentiment  ;  happily  it  would  be  now. 

I  allude  to  it  to  show,  that  the  introduction  of  Slavery  into  the  Southern 
States  is  not  to  be  visited  upon  the  generation  that  achieved  the  Independence 
of  this  country.  On  the  contrary,  all  the  eminent  men  of  that  day  regretted  it. 
And  you,  my  young  friends  of  Albany,  if  you  will  take  the  pains  to  go  back  to 
the  debates  of  the  period,  from  the  meeting  of  the  first  Congress  in  1774,  I 
mean  the  Congress  of  the  Confederation,  to  the  adoption  of  the  present  Con 
stitution,  and  the  enactment  of  the  first  law  under  the  existing  Constitution, 
you  and  anybody  who  will  make  that  necessary  research,  will  find  that  South 
ern  men  and  Southern  States,  as  represented  in  Congress,  lamented  the  exist- 


42 

ence  of  slavery  in  far  more  earnest  and  emphatic  terms  than  the  Northern  ;  for 
though  it  did  exist  in  the  Northern  States,  it  was  a  feeble  taper,  just  going  out, 
soon  to  end,  and  nothing  was  feared  from  it ;  while  leading  men  of  the  South, 
of  Virginia  and  the  Carolinas,  felt  and  acknowledged  that  it  was  a  moral  and 
political  evil  ;  that  it  weakened  the  arm  of  the  freeman,  and  kept  back  the  pro 
gress  and  success  of  free  labor  ;  and  they  said  with  truth,  and  all  history  veri 
fies  the  observation,  "  that  if  the  shores  of  the  Chesapeake  had  been  made  as 
free  to  free  labor  as  the  shores  of  the  North  River,  New  York  might  have  been 
great,  but  Virginia  would  have  been  great  also."  That  was  the  sentiment. 

Now,  under  this  state  of  things,  gentlemen,  when  the  Constitution  was 
framed,  its  framers,  and  the  people  who  adopted  it,  came  to  a  clear,  express, 
unquestionable  stipulation  and  compact.  There  had  been  an  ancient  practice 
for  many  years,  for  a  century,  for  aught  I  know,  according  to  which  fugitives 
from  service,  whether  apprentices  at  the  North,  or  slaves  at  the  South,  should 
be  restored.  Massachusetts  had  restored  fugitive  slaves  to  Virginia  long  be 
fore  the  adoption  of  the  Constitution  ;  and  it  is  well  known  that  in  other  States, 
in  which  slavery  did  or  did  not  exist,  they  were  restored  also,  on  proper  appli 
cation.  And  it  was  held  that  any  man  could  pursue  his  slave  and  take  him 
wherever  he  could  find  him.  Under  this  state  of  things,  it  was  expressly  stip 
ulated,  in  the  plainest  language,  and  there  it  stands  ;  sophistry  cannot  gloss  it, 
it  cannot  be  erased  from  the  page  of  the  Constitution  ;  there  it  stands,  that  per 
sons  held  to  service  or  labor  in  one  State,  under  the  laws  thereof,  escaping  into 
another,  shall  not,  in  consequence  of  any  law  or  regulation  therein,  be  dis 
charged  from  such  service  or  labor,  but  shall  be  delivered  up,  upon  claim  of 
the  party  to  whom  such  service  or  labor  shall  be  due.  This  was  adopted  with 
out  dissent,  nowhere  objected  to,  North  or  South,  but  considered  as  a  matter 
of  absolute  right  and  justice  to  the  Southern  States,  concurred  in  everywhere, 
by  every  State  that  adopted  the  Constitution  ;  and  we  look  in  vain  for  any 
opposition,  from  Massachusetts  to  Georgia. 

Then,  this  being  the  case,  this  being  the  provision  of  the  Constitution,  soon 
after  Congress  had  organized,  in  General  Washington's  time,  it  was  found  ne 
cessary  to  pass  a  law  to  carry  that  provision  of  the  Constitution  into  effect. 
Such  a  law  was  prepared  and  passed.  It  was  prepared  by  a  gentlemen  from 
a  Northern  State.  Is  is  said  to  have  been  drawn  up  by  Mr.  Cabot,  of  Massa 
chusetts.  It  was  supported  by  him,  and  by  Mr.  Goodhue,  and  by  Mr.  Sedg- 
wick,  of  Massachusetts,  and  generally  by  all  the  free  States.  There  was 
hardly  a  tenth  of  all  the  votes  against  it,  if  I  rightly  remember.  It  went  into 
operation,  and,  for  a  time,  it  satisfied  the  just  rights  and  expectations  of  every 
body.  That  law  provided  that  its  enactments  should  be  carried  into  effect 
mainly  by  State  magistrates,  justices  of  the  peace,  judges  of  State  courts, 
sheriffs  and  other  organs  of  State  authority.  So  things  went  on  without  loud 
complaints  from  any  quarter,  until  some  fifteen  years  ago,  when  some  of  the 
States,  the  free  States,  thought  it  proper  for  them  to  pass  laws  prohibiting 
their  own  magistrates  and  officers  from  executing  this  law  of  Congress,  under 
heavy  penalties,  and  refusing  to  the  United  States'  authorities  the  use  of  their 
prisons  for  the  detention  of  persons  arrested  as  fugitive  slaves.  That  is  to  say, 
these  States  passed  acts  defeating  the  law  of  Congress,  as  far  as  was  in  their 
power  to  defeat  it.  Those  of  them  to  which  I  refer,  not  all,  but  several,  nulli 
fied  the  law  of  '93  entirely.  They  said,  "  We  will  not  execute  it.  No  run 
away  slave  shall  be  restored."  Thus  the  law  became  a  dead  letter,  an  entire 
dead  letter.  But  here  was  the  constitutional  compact,  nevertheless,  still  bind 
ing;  here  was  the  stipulation,  as  solemn  as  words  could  form  it,  and  which 
every  member  of  Congress,  every  officer  of  the  General  Government,  every 
officer  of  the  State  Governments,  from  governors  down  to  constables,  are  sworn 
to  support.  Well,  under  this  state  of  things,  in  1850,  I  was  of  opinion  that 


43 

common  justice  and  good  faith  called  upon  us  to  make  a  law,  fair,  reasonable, 
equitable,  just,  that  should  be  calculated  to  carry  this  constitutional  provision  into 
effect,  and  give  the  Southern  States  what  they  were  entitled  to,  and  what  it 
was  intended  originally  they  should  receive,  that  is,  a  fair  right  to  recover  their 
fugitives  from  service  from  the  States  into  which  they  had  fled.  I  was  of 
opinion  that  it  was  the  bounden  duty  of  Congress  to  pass  such  a  law.  The 
South  insisted  that  they  had  a  right  to  it,  and  I  thought  they  properly  so  in 
sisted.  It  was  no  concession,  no  yielding  of  anything,  no  giving  up  of  anything. 
When  called  on  to  fulfil  a  compact,  the  question  is,  will  you  fulfil  it  ?  And, 
for  one,  I  was  ready.  I  will  fulfil  it  by  any  fair  and  reasonable  act  of  legis 
lation.  Now,  the  law  of  1850,  had  two  objects,  both  of  which  were  accom 
plished  :  First,  it  was  to  make  the  law  more  favorable  for  the  fugitive  than 
the  law  of  1793.  It  did  so,  because  it  called  for  a  record,  under  seal,  from  a 
court  in  the  State  from  which  the  fugitive  might  have  come,  proving  and  as 
certaining  that  he  was  a  fugitive  so  that  nothing  should  be  left,  when  pursued 
into  a  free  State,  but  to  produce  the  proof  of  his  identity  Next,  it  secured 
a  higher  tribunal,  and  it  placed  the  power  in  more  responsible  hands.  The 
judges  of  the  Supreme  and  District  Courts  of  the  United  States,  and  learned 
persons  appointed  by  them  as  commissioners,  were  to  see  to  the  execution  of 
the  law.  Therefore  it  was  a  more  favorable  law,  in  all  respects,  to  the  fugi 
tive,  than  the  law  passed  under  General  Washington's  administration  in  '93. 

Now,  let  me  say  that  this  law  has  been  discussed,  considered,  and  adjudged  in 
a  great  many  of  the  tribunals  of  the  country.  It  has  been  the  subject  of  discus 
sion  before  judges  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States,  the  subject  of 
discussion  before  courts  the  most  respectable  in  the  States.  Everywhere,  on 
all  occasions,  and  by  all  judges,  it  has  been  holden  to  be,  and  pronounced  to 
be,  a  constitutional  law.  So  say  Judges  McLean,  Nelson,  Woodbury,  and  all 
the  rest  of  the  judges,  as  far  as  I  know,  on  the  bench  of  the  Supreme  Court  of 
the  United  States.  So  says  the  unanimous  opinion  of  Massachusetts  herself, 
expressed  by  as  good  a  court  as  ever  sat  in  Massachusetts,  its  present  Supreme 
Court,  unanimously,  and  without  hesitation.  And  so  says  everybody,  eminent 
for  learning,  and  constitutional  law,  and  good  judgment,  without  opposition, 
without  intermixture  of  dissent,  or  difference  of  judicial  opinion  anywhere. 
And  I  hope  I  may  be  indulged  on  this  occasion,  gentlemen,  partly  on  account 
of  a  high  personal  regard,  and  partly  for  the  excellence  and  ability  of  the  pro 
duction,  to  refer  you  all  to  a  recent  very  short  opinion  of  Mr.  Prentiss,  the 
District  Judge  of  Vermont.  (Applause.)  True,  the  case  before  him  did  not 
turn  so  much  on  the  question  of  the  constitutionality  of  this  law,  as  the  uncon 
stitutionally  and  illegality,  and  utter  inadmissibility,  of  the  notion  of  private 
men  and  political  bodies  setting  up  their  own  whims  or  their  own  opinions 
above  it,  on  the  idea  of  the  higher  law  that  exists  somewhere  between  us  and 
the  third  heaven,  I  never  knew  exactly  where.  (Cries  of  "  good,"  and  laugh 
ter.) 

All  judicial  opinions  are  in  favor  of  this  law.  You  cannot  find  a  man  in  the 
profession  in  New  York,  whose  income  reaches  thirty  pounds  a  year,  who  will 
stake  his  professional  reputation  on  an  opinion  against  it.  If  he  does,  his  rep 
utation  is  not  worth  the  thirty  pounds.  (Renewed  laughter.)  And  yet  this  law 
is  opposed,  violently  opposed,  not  by  bringing  this  question  into  court :  these 
lovers  of  human  liberty ;  these  friends  of  the  slave,  the  fugitive  slave,  do  not  put 
their  hands  in  their  pockets  and  draw  funds  to  conduct  law  suits,  and  try  the 
question  ;  they  are  not  in  that  habit  much.  (Laughter.)  That  is  not  the 
way  they  show  their  devotion  to  liberty  of  any  kind.  But  they  meet  and  pass 
resolutions  ;  they  resolve  that  the  law  is  oppressive,  unjust,  and  should  not  be 
executed  at  any  rate,  or  under  any  circumstances.  It  has  been  said  in  the 
States  of  New  York,  Massachusetts,  and  Ohio,  over  and  over  again,  that  the 


44 

law  shall  not  be  executed.  That  was  the  language  of  a  Convention  in  Wor 
cester,  in  Massachusetts  ;  in  Syracuse,  New  York,  and  elsewhere.  And  for 
this  they  pledged  their  lives,  their  fortunes,  and  their  sacred  honor!  (Laugh 
ter.)  Now,  gentlemen,  these  proceedings.  I  say  it  upon  my  professional  repu 
tation,  are  distinctly  treasonable.  Resolutions  passed  in  Ohio,  certain  resolu 
tions  in  New  York,  and  the  conventions  held  in  Boston,  are  distinctly  treason 
able.  And  the  act  of  taking  away  Shadrach  from  the  public  authorities  in 
Boston,  and  sending  him  off,  was  an  act  of  clear  treason.  I  speak  this  in  the 
hearing  of  men  who  are  lawyers  ;  I  speak  it  out  to  the  country  ;  I  say  it  every 
where,  on  my  professional  repuiation.  It  was  treason,  and  nothing  else;  that 
is  to  say,  if  men  get  together,  and  combine*  together,  and  resolve  that  they  will 
oppose  a  law  of  the  government,  not  in  any  one  case,  but  in  all  cases  ;  I  say 
if  they  resolve  to  resist  the  law,  whoever  may  be  attempted  to  be  made  the 
subject  of  it,  and  carry  that  purpose  into  effect,  by  resisting  the  application  of 
the  law  in  any  one  case,  either  by  force  of  arms  or  force  of  numbers,  that,  sir, 
is  treason.  (Turning  to  Mr.  Spencer,  and  stamping  with  emphasis.)  You 
know  it  well.  (Continuing  to  address  Mr.  Spencer.)  The  resolution  itself, 
unacted  on,  is  not  treason;  it  only  manifests  a  treasonable  purpose.  When 
this  purpose  is  proclaimed — and  it  is  proclaimed  that  it  will  be  carried  out  in  all 
cases — and  is  carried  into  effect,  by  force  of  arms  or  numbers,  in  any  one  case, 
that  constitutes  a  case  of  levying  war  against  the  Union,  and  if  it  were  neces 
sary,  I  might  cite,  in  illustration,  the  case  of  John  Fries,  convicted  in  Wash 
ington's  time,  for  being  concerned  in  the  whiskey  insurrection  in  Pennsylvania. 
Now,  various  are  the  arguments,  and  various  the  efforts,  to  denounce  this  law; 
to  oppose  its  execution  ;  to  keep  it  up  as  a  question  of  agitation  ;  and  they  are 
as  diverse  as  the  varied  ingenuity  of  man,  and  the  aspect  of  such  questions 
when  they  come  before  the  public.  And  a  common  thing  it  is  to  say  that  the 
law  is  odious  ;  that  it  cannot  be  executed,  and  will  not  be  executed.  That  has 
always  been  said  by  those  who  do  not  mean  it  shall  be  executed  ;  not  by  any 
body  else.  They  assume  the  fact,  that  it  cannot  be  executed,  to  make  that 
true  which  they  wish  shall  turn  out  to  be  true.  They  wish  that  it  shall  not  be 
executed,  and,  therefore,  announce  to  all  mankind  that  it  cannot  be  executed. 

When  public  men,  and  the  conductors  of  newspapers  of  influence  and  au 
thority,  thus  deal  with  the  subject,  they  deal  unfairly  wilh  it.  Those  who  have 
types  at  command,  have  a  perfect  right  to  express  their  opinions ;  but  I  doubt 
their  right  to  express  opinions,  as  facts.  I  doubt  whether  they  have  a  right  to 
say,  not  as  a  matter  of  opinion,  but  of  fact,  that  this  particular  law  is  so  odious 
here  and  elsewhere  that  it  cannot  be  executed.  That  only  proves  that  they 
are  of  opinion  that  it  ought  not,  that  they  hope  it  may  not,  be  executed.  They 
do  not  say,  *«  See  if  any  wrong  is  inflicted  on  anybody  by  it;  let  us  hope  to  find 
in  its  operation  no  wrong  or  injury  to  anybody.  Let  us  give  it  a  fair  experi 
ment."  Do  any  of  them  hold  that  language  ?  Not  one,  **  The  wish  is  father 
to  the  thought."  They  wish  that  it  may  not  be  executed,  and  therefore  they 
say  it  cannot  and  will  not  be  executed.  That  is  one  of  the  modes  of  presenting 
the  case  to  the  people  ;  and  in  my  opinion,  it  is  not  quite  a  fair  mode  of  doing 
it.  There  are  other  forms  and  modes  ?  and  I  might  omit  to  notice  the  bluster 
ing  Abolition  societies  of  Boston  and  elsewhere,  as  unworthy  of  regard  ;  but 
there  are  other  forms  more  insidious,  and  equally  efficacious.  There  are  men 
who  say,  when  you  talk  of  amending  that  law,  that  they  hope  it  will  not  be 
touched.  You  talk  of  attempting  it,  and  they  dissuade  you.  They  say,  "  Let 
it  remain  as  obnoxious  as  it  can  be,  and  so  much  the  sooner  it  will  disgust,  and 
be  detested  by,  the  whole  community." 

I  am  grieved  to  say  that  such  sentiments  have  been  avowed  by  those  in 
Massachusetts  who  ought  to  be  utterly  ashamed,  utterly  ashamed,  to  utter 
such  opinions.  For,  what  do  they  mean  ?  They  mean  to  make  the  law  ob- 


45 

noxious  ;  so  obnoxious  that  it  shall  not  be  executed.  But  still  they  suggest  no 
other  law  ;  they  oppose  all  amendment ;  oppose  doing  anything  that  ehali 
make  it  less  distasteful.  What  do  they  mean  ?  They  mean,  and  they  know 
it,  that  there  shall  exist  no  law  whateveV  for  carrying  into  effect  this  provision 
of  (he  Constitution  of  the  country,  if  they  can  prevent  it,  let  the  cont-equences 
be  what  they  may.  They  wish  to  strike,  it  out ;  to  annul  it.  They  oppose  it 
in  every  possible  form  short  of  personal  resistance,  or  incurring  personal  dan 
ger ;  and  to  do  this,  they  say  the  worse  the  law  is  the  better.  They  say  we 
have  now  a  topic,  and  for  mercy's  sake  don't  amend  the  horrible  law  of  1850. 
(Laughter.)  Then,  again,  they  say,  "  We  are  for  an  eternal  agitation  and  dis 
cussion  of  this  question  ;  the  people  cannot  be  bound  by  it.  Every  member  of 
Congress  has  the  right  to  move  the  repeal  of  this  as  well  as  any  other  law." 
Who  does  not  know  this  ?  A  member  must  act  according  to  his  own  discretion. 
No  doubt  he  has  a  right  to-morrow,  if  Congress  were  in  session,  to  move  a  re 
peal  of  the  Fugitive  Mave  Law  ;  but  this  takes  with  it  another  fact- 
He  has  just  as  much  right  to  move  to  tear  <!own  the  Capitol,  until  one  stone 
shall  not  be  left  on  another;  just  as  much  right  to  move  to  di>band  the  army, 
and  to  throw  the  ordnance  and  arms  into  the  sea.  He  has  just  as  much  right 
to  move  that  all  the  ships  of  war  of  the  United  States  shall  be  collected  and 
burned;  an  illumination  like  that  which  lit  up  the  walls  of  ancient  Troy.  He 
may  do  any  of  these  things.  The  question  is,  Is  he  prudent,  wise ;  a  real 
friend  to  the  country,  or  adverse  to  it?  That  is  all.  And  a  greater  question 
lies  behind:  Will  the  people  support  him  in  it?  Is  it  the  result  of  the  good 
sense  of  the  Northern  people,  that  the  question  shall  have  neither  rest  or  quiet, 
but  shall  be  constantly  kept  up  as  a  topic  of  agitation  ?  I  cannot  decide  this 
question  for  the  people,  but  leave  them  to  do  it  for  themselves.  And  now, 
gentlemen,  this  is  a  serious  question,  whether  the  Constitution  can  be  main 
tained  in  part  and  not  in  whole  ?  Whether  those  interested  in  the  preserva 
tion  of  it,  finding  their  interests  in  that  particular  abandoned,  are  not  likely 
enough,  according  to  all  the  experience  of  human  feeling,  to  discard  that  por 
tion  which  was  introduced,  not  for  their  benefit,  but  for  the  benefit  of  others  ? 
That  is  the  question.  For  one,  I  confess,  I  do  not  see  any  reasonable  pros 
pect  of  maintaining  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States,  unless  we  maintain 
it  as  a  whole  ;  impartially,  honorably,  patriotically.  Gentlemen,  I  am  detain 
ing  you  too  long ;  but  allow  me  a  few  words  on  another  subject,  by  way  of 
illustration. 

The  Constitution  of  the  United  States,  consists  in  a  series  of  mutual  agree 
ments  or  compromises,  one  thing  being  yielded  by  the  South,  another  by  the 
North  ;  the  general  mind  having  been  brought  together,  and  the  whole  agreed 
to,  as  I  have  said,  as  a  series  of  compromises.  Well,  gentlemen,  who  does  not 
see  that  ?  Had  the  North  no  particular  interest  to  be  regarded  and  protected  ? 
Had  the  North  no  interest  ?  Was  nothing  yielded  by  the  South  to  the  North? 
Gentlemen,  you  are  proud  citizens  of  a  great  commercial  State.  You  know 
that  ISew  York  ships  float  ovfcr  the  world,  and  bring  abundance  of  riches  to 
your  own  shores.  You  know  that  this  is  the  result  of  the  commercial  policy 
of  the  United  States,  and  of  the  commercial  power  vested  in  Congress 
by  the  Constitution.  And  how  was  this  commerce  established  ?  by  what 
constitutional  provisions,  and  for  whose  benefit?  The  South  was  never 
a  commercial  country.  The  plantation  States  were  never  commercial. 
Their  interest  always  was,  as  they  thought,  what  they  think  it  to  be  now, 
free  trade,  the  unrestricted  admission  of  foreigners  in  competition  in  all 
branches  of  business  with  our  own  people.  But  what  did  they  do?  They 
agreed  to  form  a  Government  that  should  regulate  commerce  according  to  the 
wants  and  wishes  of  the  Northern  States,  and  when  the  Constitution  went  into 
operation,  a  commercial  system  was  actually  established,  on  which  rose  up  the 
whole  glory  of  New  York  and  New  England.  (Applause*.) 


46 

Well,  what  did  Congress  do  under  a  Northern  lead  with  Southern  acqui 
escence  ?  What  did  it  do  ?  It  protected  the  commerce  of  New  York  and  the 
Eastern  States,  first  by  a  preference,  by  way  of  tonnage  duties,  and  that  higher 
tonnage  on  foreign  ships  has  tii^Ver  be^n  surrendered  to  this  day,  but  in  con 
sideration  of  a  just  equivalent;  so  that  in  that  respect,  without  grudging  or  com 
plaint  on  the  part  of  the  South,  but  generously  and  fairly,  not  by  way  of  con 
cession,  but  in  the  true  spirit  of  the  Constitution,  the  commerce  of  New  York 
was,  and  the  New  England  States  were,  protected  by  the  provision  of  the  Con 
stitution  to  which  I  have  referred.  But  that  is  not  all. 

Friends  !  Fellow-citizens  !  Men  of  New  York !  Does  this  country  not 
now  extend  from  Maine  to  Mexico,  and  beyond  ?  and  have  we  not  a  State 
beyond  Cape  Horn,  belonging  nevertheless  to  us  as  part  of  our  commercial 
system  ?  And  what  does  New  York  enjoy  ?  What  do  Massachusetts  and 
Maine  enjoy  ?  They  enjoy  an  exclusive  right  of  carrying  on  the  coasting 
trade  from  State  to  State,  on  the  Atlantic  and  around  Cape  Horn  to  the 
Pacific.  And  that  is  a  most  highly  important  branch  of  business,  and  source 
of  wealth  and  emolument,  of  comfort  and  good  living.  It  is  this  exclusive 
right  to  the  coasting  trade  which  the  Northern  States  possess,  which  was  granted 
to  them,  which  they  have  ever  held,  and  which,  up  to  this  day,  there  has  been  no 
attempt  to  rescue  from  them  ;  it  is  this  which  has  employed  so  much  tonnage  and 
so  many  men.  Now,  what  would  you  say  in  this  day  of  the  prevalence  of  notions 
of  free  trade  ;  what  would  you  say  if  the  South  and  West  were  to  join  together 
to  .pepeal  this  law  ?  And  they  have  the  votes  to  do  it  to-morrow.  What  would 
you  say  if  they  should  join  hands  and  say  that  these  men  of  the  North  and 
New  England,  who  put  this  slight  on  their  interests,  shall  enjoy  this  exclusive 
privilege  no  longer  ?  That  they  will  throw  it  all  open,  and  invite  the  Dane,  the 
Swede,  the  Hamburger,  and  all  the  commercial  nations  of  Europe  who  will 
carry  cheaper,  to  come  in  and  carry  goods  from  New  York  coastwise  on  the 
Atlantic,  and  to  California  on  the  Pacific  ?  What  do  you  say  to  that  ? 

Now,  gentlemen,  these  ideas  have  been  a  thousand  times  suggested,  perhaps, 
but  if  there  is  anything  new  in  them,  I  hope  it  may  be  regarded.  But  what 
was  said  in  Syracuse  and  Boston  ;  it  was  this  :  "  You  set  up  profit  against 
conscience  ;  you  set  up  the  means  of  living;  we  go  for  conscience."  (Laugh 
ter.)  That  is  a  flight  of  fanaticism.  All  I  have  to  answer  is,  that  if  what  we 
propose  is  right,  fair,  just,  and  stands  well  with  a  conscience  not  enlightened 
with  those  high  flights  of  fancy,  it  is  none  the  worse  for  being  profitable,  and 
that  it  does  not  make  a  thing  bad  which  is  good  in  itself,  if  you  and  I  can  live 
on  it,  and  our  children  can  be  supported  and  educated  by  it.  If  the  compact 
of  the  Constitution  is  fair,  and  was  fairly  entered  into,  it  is  none  the  worse  one 
should  think,  for  its  having  been  found  useful.  ( Renewed  applause.)  Gentlemen, 
I  believe,  in  Cromwell's  time — for  I  am  not  very  fresh  in  my  recollections  of 
that  historic  period ;  I  have  had  more  to  do  with  other  things  than  some  of 
you  younger  men  that  love  to  look  into  the  instructive  history  of  that  age,  but 
I  think  it  was  in  Cromwell's  dme,  that  there  sprung  up  a  race  of  saints  who 
called  themselves  "  fifth  monarchy  men,"  a  happy,  felicitious,  glorious  people 
they  were;  for  they  had  practised  so  many  virtues,  they  were- so  enlightened, 
so  perfect,  that  they  got  to  be,  in  the  language  of  that  day,  "  above  ordinan 
ces."  That  is  the  higher  law  of  this  day  exactly.  (Laughter.)  That  higher 
law  is  the  old  doctrine  of  the  fifth  monarchy  men,  of  Cromwell's  time,  re 
vived.  They  were  above  ordinances,  walked  about  firm  and  spruce,  self- 
satisfied,  thankful  to  God  that  they  were  not  as  other  men,  but  had  attained 
so  far  to  salvation  as  to  be  "  above  all  necessity  of  restraint  or  control,  civil 
or  religious."  (Renewed  laughter.) 

Gentlemen,  we  live  under  a  Constitution.  It  has  made  us  what  we  are. 
What  has  carried  the  American  flag  all  over  the  world  ?  What  has  constitu- 


47 

tuted  that  unit  of  commerce,  that  wherever  the  stars  and  stripes  are  seen  they 
signify  that  it  is  America  and  united  America  ?  What  is  it  no\v  that  repre 
sents  us  so  respectably  all  over  Europe?  in  London  at  this  moment,  and  all 
over  the  world?  What  is  it  but  the  result  of  those  commercial  regulations 
which  united  us  all  together,  and  made  our  commerce,  the  same  commerce  ; 
which  made  all  the  States,  New  York,  Massachusetts,  South  Carolina,  in  the 
aspect  of  our  foreign  relations,  the  same  country,  without  division,  distinction, 
or  separation.  Now,  gentlemen,  this  was  the  original  design  of  the  Consti 
tution.  We,  in  our  day,  must  see  to  it,  and  it  will  be  equally  incumbent  on 
you,  my  young  friends  of  Albany,  to  see  that  while  you  live  this  spirit  is 
made  to  pervade  the  whole  administration  of  the  Government.  The  Consti 
tution  of  the  United  States  to  keep  us  united,  to  keep  flowing  in  our  hearts  a 
fraternal  feeling,  must  be  administered  in  the  spirit  in  which  it  was  framed. 
And  if  I  were  to  exhibit  the  spirit  of  the  Constitution  in  its  living,  speaking, 
animated  form,  I  would  refer  always,  always,  to  the  admin isiration  of  the  first 
President.  George  Washington.  (Vehement  cheering.)  And  i*  I  were  now 
to  describe  a  patriot  President,  I  would  draw  his  master-strokes  and  copy  his 
design  ;  I  would  present  his  picture  before  me  as  a  constant  study  for  life  ; 
I  would  present  his  policy,  alike  liberal,  just,  narrowed  down  to  no  sectional 
interests,  bound  to  no  personal  objects,  held  to  no  locality,  but  broad  and  gen 
erous,  and  open,  as  expansive  as  the  air  which  is  wafted  by  the  winds  of 
heaven  from  one  part  of  the  country  to  another.  (Cheers.) 

I  would  draw  a  picture  of  his  foreign  policy,  just,  steady,  stately,  but  withal 
proud,  and  lofty,  and  glorious.  No  man  could  say  in  his  day  that  the  broad 
escutcheon  of  the  honor  of  the  Union  could  receive  injury  or  damage,  or  even 
contumely  or  disrespect  with  impunity.  His  own  character  gave  character 
to  the  foreign  relations  of  the  country.  He  upheld  every  interest  of  his  coun 
try  in  even  the  proudest  nations  of  Europe,  and  while  resolutely  just,  he  was 
resolutely  determined  that  no  plume  in  the  honor  of  the  country  should  ever 
be  defaced  or  taken  from  its  proper  position  by  any  power  on  earth.  Wash 
ington  was  cautious  and  prudent;  no  self-seeker;  giving  information  to  Con 
gress  according  to  the  Constitution,  on  all  questions,  when  necessary,  with 
fairness  and  frankness,  claiming  nothing  for  himself,  exercising  his  own 
rights,  and  preserving  the  dignity  of  his  station,  but  taking  especial  care  to 
execute  the  laws  as  a  paramount  duty,  and  in  such  manner  as  to  give  satis 
faction  to  everybody,  and  to  be  subservient  to  that  end.  And  it  was  always 
remarked  of  his  administration,  that  he  filled  the  courts  of  justice  with  the 
most  spotless  integrity,  the  highest  talent,  and  the  purest  virtue  ;  and  hence 
it  became  a  com  non  saying,  running  through  all  classes  of  society,  that  our 
great  security  is  in  the  learning  and  integrity  of  the  judicial  tribunals.  This 
hisrh  character  they  justly  possessed,  and  continue  to  possess  in  an  eminent 
degree  from  the  impress  which  Washington  stamped  on  these  tribunals  at 
their  first  organization. 

Gentlemen,  a  patriot  President  of  the  United  States  is  the  guardian,  the 
protector,  the  friend  of  every  citizen  in  them.  He  should  be,  and  he  is,  no 
man's  persecutor,  no  man's  enemy,  but  the  supporter  and  protector  of  all  and 
every  citizen,  so  far  as  his  support  and  protection  depend  on  his  faithful  exe 
cution  of  the  laws.  But  there  is  especially  one  great  idea  which  Washing 
ton  presents,  and  which  governed  him,  and  which  should  govern  every  man 
in  high  office,  who  means  to  resemble  Washington  :  that  is  the  duty  of  pre 
serving  the  government  itself,  of  suffering,  so  far  as  depends  on  him,  no  one 
branch  to  interfere  with  another,  and  no  power  to  be  assumed  not  belonging 
to  each,  and  none  abandoned  which  pertains  to  each  ;  but  to  preserve  it  and 
carry  it  on  for  the  benefit  of  the  present  and  future  generations. 

Gentlemen,  a  wise  and  prudent  shipmaster  makes  it  his  first  duty  to  pre- 


48 

serve  the  vessel  that  carries  him,  and  his  passengers,  and  all  that  is  commit 
ted  to  his  charge,  to  keep  her  afloat,  to  conduct  her  to  her  destined  port  with, 
entire  security  of  property  and  life  ;  that  is  his  first  object,  and  that  should  be 
the  object,  and  is,  of  every  Chief  Magistrate  of  the  United  States,  who  has  a 
proper  appreciation  of  his  duty.  It  is  to  preseve  the  Constitution  which  bears 
him,  which  sustains  the  government,  without  which  everything  goes  to  the 
bottom;  to  preserve  that,  and  keep  it  with  the  utmost  of  his  ability  off  the 
rocks  and  shoals,  and  away  from  the  quick-sands;  to  preserve  that,  he  exer 
cises  the  caution  of  the  experienced  ship-master.  He  suffers  nothing  to  be 
tray  his  watchfulness,  or  to  draw  him  a^ide  from  the  great  interest  committed 
to  his  care,  and  the  great  object  in  view  ; 

"  Though  pleased  to  see  the  dolphins  play, 
He  minds  his  compass  and  his  way; 
And  oft.  he  throws  the  wary  lead, 
To  see  what  dangers  may  be  hid, 
At  helm  lie  makes  his  reason  sit; 
His  crew  of  passions  all  submit. 
Thus,  thus  he  steers  his  barque  and  sails 
On  upright  keel,  to  meet  the  gales  !" 

Now,  gentlemen,  a  patriot  President,  acting  from  the  impulses  of  this  high 
and  honorable  purpose,  may  reach  what  Washington  reached.  He  may  con 
tribute  to  raise  high  the  public  prosperity,  to  help  fill  up  the  measure  of  his 
country's  glory  and  renown  ;  and  he  may  be  able  to  find  a  rich  reward  in 
the  thankfulness  of  the  people, 

"  And  read  his  history  in  a  nation's  eyes." 


tSS^SSsa-. 

ir^s^^ssa,,^ 


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